Niagara Falls State Park, New York

The day started with full pockets and an empty belly, the weather was some of the best we have had all summer cutting it close with only 5 days till fall. We hit JJ Kapps for breakfast but skipped on the buffet and went for freshly made food. It was average, as JJ Kapps consistently has AVERAGE food. Good for Sunday mornings when all the good breakfast spots have long waits, you can count on the complete averageness of JJ Kapps!

We hit the road with smooth sailing, and not a spec of construction the whole way. We decided to park at the top of the hill on the Canadian side. The offer of $10 all day parking and a day of hiking was too good to pass up. Who doesn’t love the opportunity to save money and get exercise. Some people gladly pay to stare at a screen and exercise, not us though 😉

The plan was to walk down on the Canadian side and snap some shots of the American falls from the Canadian perspective, and then cross the border and shot the Canadian side from American…. you get the point. On our way down the hill, they had the right side of the street closed off by police tape for the 17km marker of some race that I never ended up looking up. When we get to the bottom of the hill and are greeted by a sea of people packed tighter than your suitcase coming back from Cuba with 4 extra bottles of rum, 3 boxes of cigars and a small dish washing Cuban. Needless to say, we passed on trying to navigate through the heard of brainless tourists, and instead opted for the less congested park view route.

We began our saunter down the Blvd heading towards the peace bridge with minimum resistance, on the opposite side closest to the gorge the foot traffic was starting to spill onto the street. In no time we hit the peace bridge and began crossing, stopping only to snap a few shots of the attractions we were about to partake in. The border crossing with customs took about 2 mins and consisted of a couple questions a joke or 2 exchanged and then the push threw onto American soil. Super relaxed and took no time at all. Definitely the way to go if you’re just going to the national park.

In the park

We high tailed it away from the customs office and headed towards the visitor center. We opened the doors and got hit with the distinct smell of curry sweat. Holding our breath the entire time we ran down the stairs skipping all of the info and history panels and straight out the doors into glorious FRESH AIR! We then instinctively started moving toward the view of our Canadian skyline, maybe because we already missed home or maybe to see the heard of zombies on the other side.
After a few photos, on to the sky bridge!!

There was a huge couple in line in front of us, one riding a scooter that was almost being swallowed by her ass. Her husband was breathing insanely heavy and sweating profusely. When he approached the booth for tickets he proceeded to ask way more questions than any one person should have about such a simple attraction. Pausing only to swallow the leftovers stuck in his jowls or to wipe his sweat from various parts of his body. We could hear the teller in the booth getting short with him. They then slimmed away and it was Our turn, 2 for the Observation deck (AKA Sky Bridge) Please, $2.50 And DONE.

We then proceeded to walk out onto the sky bridge and snap a couple pictures, surprisingly it wasn’t insanely crowded like our Canadian soil. We then went to line up to take the elevator down to the bottom of the gorge to get a better more refreshing view of the falls.

When we got to the bottom there was Some guy standing right in the way with his stroller texting. Then as we passed him he decided to start to move and ran over my girlfriend’s feet, and instead of apologizing he says “watch where you’re going”. Other then that the falls were spectacular it was hot with the occasional gust so the waterfalls were misting pretty bad. It made for some interesting sights of light getting trapped in the water vapour and creating misty rainbows, I tried photo-ING the shit out of it but I could not do it justice. Plus it was like a game of cat and mouse with the wet wind and my camera the entire time. I would have to drop the shot every time the wind blew to tuck my camera away and avoid water damage.

Back up top, we were heading towards the bridge to goat island and we noticed that all of the Light posts had sea gals sitting on them except one. At the bottom of that lamp post, there were 4 sea gals fighting for it. Ahh to be king of a Smooth Light Emitting Poop Ball With Such A View.

On the journey to Luna Island, we stopped just over the bridge for some $3.25 bottle of water and there was a nice smelling hobo playing guitar and singing that was quite good, it’s nice to see they don’t hinder busking in their national parks in the state. Luna island was not even close to crowded and the only problem I had was with an older perching Asian lady that was hugging the corner rail to take an excessive amount of selfies in front of the falls. As soon as she fled we swooped into copy the movement of our elder. I spent a few minutes watching the yellow blobs of people below on the hurricane deck getting engulfed by the falling water from the waterfall. I took a few pictures to try and capture, what is in my opinion, the coolest view of the American falls.

After that, we headed over to the American view of horseshoe falls. There was probably less the 20 people in total surrounding such a beautiful view, we swooped in for some half decent shots that were rushed because of our hot sweaty state. If I had to sum Niagara falls State Park up in a sentence: Slightly crowded Short lines that get you close to the water top and bottom and provided you with insanely beautiful views.

It was then a long walk back to the Canadian side of things. On our way out the park, I was reminded of my girlfriend’s recent milky way obsession that yielded no results on the Canadian side,  so I suggested we go on a 3 block choco hunt for the bar I had heard so much about in the past month. Three stores and three questions “do you sell milky ways?” 2 No’s and we found it at The Made In America Store. Mission accomplished.

then we headed back across the bridge to our home soil, it felt like a 100km trek in the heat once inside customs it was a blast of cold air and a complacent customs officer that was happy to push us threw in a monotone rehearsed monologue. The real battle was still in front of us, the long walk down the blvd and back up the hill was uneventful and by the time we made it back to the car we were both soaked in our own salty liquid thanks to the humid sun beating down on us. Immediately back on the highway, we were greeted by a familiar sign in our Canadian seasons “Construction” which was a more than common theme on our path back home.

Overall, it was a great day trip with a low cost. Every time I visit the state’s side of the falls I begin to like it more than the Canadian side. Its much less of a commercial money grab, way less crowded and they let you get extremely close to the water.

Travelling Trev.