Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Erie Canal Day 8 (or really, Niagara Falls Day 2) Part 1 - Cave of the Winds!

Well, oof, the usual March march at work marches on, all work and no play makes Bonnie a boring blogger, but recently overhearing someone complaining about how Niagara Falls wasn't as amazing as they expected did remind me that I had promised more Niagara back in a January post and never done that. So here we go, on with Day 2!

We were in total tourist mode here on my first ever visit to Niagara Falls, so of course we had to visit the Cave of the Winds, which is not actually a cave anymore. Once upon a time, there WAS a cave, and tours were offered, but it was closed after a rockfall in 1920 and then "obliterated in a massive 1954 rockfall and subsequent dynamiting of a dangerous overhang" (thanks Wikipedia). The tour had reopened in 1924 using boardwalks and stairs and today the Cave of the Winds is really the Boardwalk of the Winds. Interesting notes about the construction - there's no foundation, the support poles are just shoved down into spaces in the boulders at the base of the falls, and they take off the decking and store it in the wintertime when the ice buildup would take it apart. That must be quite the job, and the initial construction must have been hair-raising. Great attraction though, so amazing to get right up to the falls like that.

The photo above was taken on our first day in Niagara Falls, and I was loving that people were getting right under the falls the way they were. The next day it was our turn, and we had a blast! Once again, the fall visit worked out great, we were able to get our ponchos and slippers and get right onto the elevator without waiting at all, and then of course for this we were very lucky to have almost summery weather. Photos below, although after a certain point I had to pack up my camera because there was just too much water for it, next time I'll have to bring the waterproof one! That's it for the writeup, click on the first photo below for a slideshow view.


4 comments:

JP said...

The view is quite different from the American side - is that because there is a national park on that side while clearly not on the Canadian?

bonnie said...

Partly that, but we were also thinking that the relatively poor economy on the US side may have kept the developers at bay as well - the town of Niagara Falls US runs right along the riverside in places and we were actually somewhat surprised that here it was the Canadian side that had so wholly given into that thing developers have about thinking that a natural wonder is SO much better if it has towers with LED light shows next to it. Sigh.

LauraEhlers said...

What amazing pictures, as always! I have never been to the falls, can't imagine them being anything but spectacular!

bonnie said...

I'm definitely glad I saw them!

I was talking to my sister about it, she visited once a long time ago when she was doing an internship sort of thing, and she didn't like it quite as much as I did - but it was in February and it was freezing cold and the Maid of the Mist hasn't got a nice warm cabin, it's all open! I could see that might be some pretty tough touristing. We were SO lucky with the weather.