New England Trip

We got an early start, driving north to Erie, PA where we could see Lake Erie from the highway, and across the west end of New York to Buffalo. The parts of Buffalo that we saw were mostly quite ugly - old and industrial. But the courthouse with its huge clock tower, and several churches with tall spires, had good bones, and would probably be beautiful with some sand-blasting or pressure-washing.

Our campground is on Grand Island, which sits in the middle of the Niagara River just a few miles south of (and above) the falls. It’s a bit disorienting to navigate around a river that flows north.

With most of the afternoon free, and the weather beautiful, we went to see the American Falls. On the way, we stopped at a river overlook where the strong northbound current fought with a 20-knot north wind to build very rough chop on the water. We watched a powerboat struggling against the headwind and drifting sideways.

The falls are truly amazing. The river flowing to the falls runs at what appears to be 15 to 20 mph in big rapids. Then, suddenly, the river disappears into a cloud of mist. At the edge of the falls, the ground trembles slightly from the impact of the water below and the roar is palpable.

After viewing the falls from several locations above, we took an elevator down to the base for a ride on one of the Maid of the Mist boats. We were issued blue plastic ponchos to keep us not so wet. The falls are at least doubly awesome from below. The boat took us up the river along the base of the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls to the center of the base of the Canadian Horseshoe falls. There, the river was very rough, the wind was gusting, and the air was dense with mist. We could see the green water coming over the top but nothing below 150 feet or so. There was too much spray to take a picture at the base of Horseshoe Falls. Below is a picture of the American Falls from the boat.

Apparently, we bought the lottery ticket a day too late – not a single number on our ticket was drawn, not even a seven.

Two pictures follow – both taken of the American Falls from the Maid of the Mist boat.