Visiting Niagara Falls on a Shoe-String

Does the water tumbling over Niagara Falls hit the Atlantic in Canada or the U.S.?

People often doubt rivers can flow north.   But north they can, and north the Niagara River does.

Now you know!  Carry that little factoid in your pocket when you head out on your Niagara Falls trip.

Tips for Visiting Niagara Falls on a Budget

What’s the price to visit Niagara Falls?   It’s free!   Looking at the falls, and walking around the visitor’s centers can be done at no  cost.  However, there are lots of add-on opportunities and gimmicks, not to mention the whole eating thing we do each day.

Here are tips to save you money when you visit Niagara Falls:

• Base yourself in the U.S.
  Looking at the falls is free on both sides, but goods and falls-related services are more costly  on the Canadian side.

• Don’t park in the U.S. Niagara Falls parking lot.
  Less than 100 yards away, parking can be had for $5 instead of $10 ¹as of 2016.   And I’d bet if you googled “Free parking Niagara Falls, New York,” you might even find a cost-free spot to drop your wheels for the day.

• Bring your walking shoes.
  To do Niagara justice, you’re going to have to put some miles on your piggies.   If you don’t think about your comfort beforehand, you’re far more likely to self-medicate the discomfort away by treating yourself to something you wouldn’t normally buy.

• Bring a jacket.
  While it was about 5,000 degrees in the American parking lot, standing on the lip of the falls in Canada being sprayed with water?  Freezing.

• Bring sunscreen.
  The Canadian side doesn’t sport much shade, and a good deal of the American side doesn’t either. Buying sunscreen when you get there will include a tourist tax in the price.   Those visiting Niagara Falls on a budget best be prepared!

• Pack a picnic!
  And eat it on the Canadian side. You’ll definitely get hungry on a proper visit.   And if you start on the American side, it’s likely your hunger won’t hit until you’re standing in Canada.   There are plenty of spots to picnic on the American side, but I reckon an ideal outdoor lunch can be had on the wide, long stretch of grass and intermittent benches that follows the Canadian path from the international footbridge all the way up to the falls.

• Give yourself half a day at least.
  Rushing around is stressful and uncomfortable — both of which lead to emotional spending.   Just arriving at the falls, finding a bathroom, planning my visit, dropping gear at my car, walking over the international bridge, passing through immigration, walking up to the Canadian falls and back, and returning through U.S. immigration took 90 minutes.   I spent at least another 90 on the American side reading displays, walking the many paths, and eating the picnic lunch I wished I’d brought to Canada.

• Instead of Maid in Mist, go to the $1 Observation Tower.
  If you have time to go to the Canadian side, then you don’t need to bother with the observation tower. Second place would be walking over the international footbridge.   If you can’t do that either, the Observation Tower view is certainly worth a dollar.   It also allows you river-level access via elevators.   You can get fairly close to the “American Falls” — a similar experience to Maid in the Mist.   And by that I mean, a similar experience to being in the shower while wearing a rain jacket.

• Instead of the Observation Tower, walk the free bridge.
  As above, the view from the international footbridge is superior to the view from the observation tower.   If you have a DUI and want to visit Niagara Falls, it seemed to me that anyone with a proper passport to re-enter the U.S. could theoretically walk out on the bridge, see the killer views, never confront Canadian authorities ²who won’t let you into the country if you’ve had a DUI — even just to walk around the falls area, and turn back around and re-enter the U.S.

• Hit Observation Deck Happy Hour.
  According to Lonely Planet, the observation deck is free after 5 p.m. Maybe a great way to end your day and snag a fun  selfie.  I headed for my couchsurfing host’s house in Rochester around 3:30, so didn’t get to test this tip.

Niagara Falls Travel Advice

• Don’t forget your passport!
  Everyone says the Canadian side is more spectacular, and it’s true.   It’s sort of like balcony vs floor seats.   The American side of Niagara Falls has plenty going for it, but if you could only pick one side it would have to be Canada.   Assuming you followed the advice to base yourself in the U.S., you’ll need a passport to walk over to Canada and back.

• Enjoy both sides.
  It’s sort of like Central Park (American side) vs. Times Square (Canadian side).  Both have merit.  Some prefer the relative peacefulness of the American side, others enjoy the more commercialized Canadian side (with the better view).  FYI – the American side isn’t development-free, but the area next to the falls is au naturale: you can only see the backdrop of American hotels from the Canadian side.  ³My impression of the Canadian side if much like my first impression of California beaches.   Heard for years how amazing they were, and then I went to my first one in San Diego.  I was shocked that it was a small strip of stand with giant, metal 50 gallon drums (trash cans) planted at 50 yard intervals down the tiny beach, all backed by apartments and houses.  Having the commercialization right next to the falls on the Canadian side makes the falls a little less magic, a little more Disneyland.  It fails to amplify the natural wonder.   When visitors  can’t disconnect from the commercial world, it’s hard to get  that pure joy of 100% nature.

• Walk all the way up to the falls on the Canadian side.
  It’s tempting to see the great view of the falls from the foot bridge, walk a few hundred yards/meters up the river in Canada, and think, “Yup — like they said, this is pretty spectacular. Seems like the view isn’t changing much though. And this is taking way longer than I thought.   Maybe I don’t need to walk right up to the edge of the falls.”   It would be a shame if you didn’t.  Horseshoe falls contains 85% of the river volume.  Standing at the railing watching the water under your feet pour over the edge is pretty breathtaking.  And it’s a  great Maid in the Mist alternative.

• Find a loo before you arrive.
  Weirdly, the American side possesses woefully inadequate bathrooms.   With dozens of people flowing through the doors every minute (even in the off season!) only three stalls serve the masses on the entry-floor to the visitor center.   If your kid is bursting, head downstairs for the same number of stalls, but possibly fewer people using them.

• Visit in the off-season.
  If you want to visit Niagara Falls in May like me, you won’t be jostling for space.  A prime photo spot said to be permanently crowded was wide open on the day I visited!

• Learn French.
  Ha!  Kidding!   But it was a bit of a slap in the face to walk up to a sign and  slowly  realize it wasn’t accessible to me.   Just across the river, but not in Kansas anymore!

• Beat the DUI Blues
  In case you skipped the budget section: It seems to me anyone with a passport can walk out onto the international footbridge and then return and pass through U.S. immigration.   That means Canadian Authorities have zero chance of  rejecting you based on your DUI.   For what it’s worth, the Canadian immigration officer who welcomed me to the country didn’t ask me any DUI questions.  He did want to know if I was carrying any weapons.  He didn’t laugh when I laughed in response to this question: “What brings you to [this Niagara Falls footbridge entry to] Canada today, ma’am?”  Oh, you know, just going to take my camera and purse and go check out jobs in Toronto, I mentally replied.

• Bring Your Pooch!
  The number of dogs I saw on the Canadian side really surprised me.  The last time I checked, bringing your dog into Canada only required proof of rabies vaccination.  You should check, too.  And I don’t think fido is allowed on the American side – didn’t see any furry friends there.

What Niagara Falls is Like

It’s funny that for all its infamy, most people don’t actually know what Niagara Falls is like.   I guess because you can’t capture it in a photo like you can the Matterhorn or Old Faithful, or the Grand Canyon, or the Maldives.

• Three Birds, One Stone  
  Many visitors don’t realize Niagara Falls is actually composed of a set of waterfalls. The technical name for what many people consider Niagara Falls — the one that people go over in barrels – is called Horseshoe Falls.   And the falls coming off a braided river channel between the U.S. mainland and a U.S. owned island are exclusively on the American side and are called the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls

• Ho-Hum Hydro — thanks to between half and three-quarters of the flow being diverted for hydro-electric power, the falls don’t thunder the way they might have in years gone by. In contrast, one can feel  a similar famous waterfall ⁴in South America on the border between Brazil and Argentina — Iguazu Falls — from a quarter-mile away.

• Vista Value
  Niagara has something Iguazu doesn’t. The land around the falls is fairly open, making for excellent views. Iguazu is covered in jungle, meaning you hear falls long before you can see them.   Being able to see Niagara Falls from a distance gives visitors a thrilling sense of the falls’ impressive magnitude.

• Hues of Blue
  The vivid water you see in all those Niagara photos? It’s true!   The river that fills the gorgeous gorges really is the same color as skyscraper glass.

• Bird Watching — seagulls, et. al. spend the day darting through the mist generated by the falls. The birds flap up and down the gorge above the water all day, adding to the mileu.

• Super Shelf
  If you get near the edge or underside of either of the falls, you’ll notice the water pours off an overhang. Basically, the cap of dolomite ⁵made from highly compacted organic material is so much stronger than underlying layers of shale ⁶compressed clay, limestone, and sandstone, that it stands up to tons of water flowing over it for years, despite being unsupported from below.

Interesting Facts About Niagara Falls

• Dewatering?! For real!
  Dolomite (see last bullet point above) is strong.   But not that strong.   It does eventually break and joins the chunks of shale, limestone, and sandstone at the base of the falls.   Especially given the stemmed flow of water (thanks, hydroelectric power), those rocks erode more slowly.Now, be honest.   You’d rather see falls cascading into a river instead of onto a pile of rocks.   Wouldn’t you?   At least some folks would.   Those with enough money and power to dewater the entire American Falls did so in 1969 under the guise of studying erosion prevention and possibly cleaning up the rockfall. They wanted to try and prevent erosion. You know”¦ that geological process that’s been going of for millions of years?   Surely there’s a way to stop that old trick.

  Not surprisingly, they found cleaning up and trying to prevent future rockfall would be expensive.   The public voted overwhelmingly to let mother nature do her thing.

• Daredevil Inspiration
  Going over the falls in a barrel is crazy, no matter how you spin it. The first person to do so was Annie Taylor.   She was a poor, retired school teacher who hoped the stunt would bring her fame and a reliable income.   Unfortunately, her manager stole her barrel and she died in poverty.

• Metaphor Irony
  Earlier I likened the Canadian side of the falls to New York City’s Times Square — bustling and busy — while comparing the American side to NYC’s Central Park — a less commercial place with a focus on nature. Well guess who designed Niagara Falls State Park that encompasses the American side of the falls.   Frederick Law Olmstead — the landscape architect who designed Central Park.  ⁷And Fenway in Boston — the greenspace, not the stadium.  No. Way.

So should you visit Niagara Falls?

If I had only five days in the U.S. or Canada and could magically teleport to places”¦ yes.

Would I suggest driving all the way to the falls just to have a look?   Well”¦ if you like road trips, sure!   If you can’t fit it onto your itinerary, don’t be too sad.   You can make up for it when you go see Iguazu Falls ⁸this is the post about my visit.   (a cringeworthy read for yours truly.   Looking back 11 years on one’s writing style is always good for a laugh!) in Argentina! ♣

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