We arrived in the Niagara Falls national park with an intention of spending a couple of hours there and then heading out towards Boston, our next stop. We had so much fun there participating in all of the activities that the falls have to offer, that we ended up spending a little over five hours there. In this blog post I will tell you about different activities that the park has to offer and share some of the photos from the trip there. This post is actually quite unique and is different from the rest of my recaps as all of the photos used in this recap were taken with my phone and not my DSLR camera. I did not risk taking out my camera from the backpack as most of the things we did in the national park ended up with us getting progressively wetter. If you are traveling to Niagara Falls, don't bother taking your camera out unless you are somewhere far enough from the water. But let's start with the fun part! First of all, Niagara Falls are completely free to the visitors with the exception that you have to pay for parking. Now, the activities I am going to talk about in this post require you to pay but the general access to the park and surrounding areas is free.
First activities that we participated in were visiting the observation deck and getting on the Maid of the Mist boat ride. The observation deck access would cost you about a buck, while the boat ride is priced around $20 per person. I would definitely recommend getting on the boat as it provides you with a close up look of the waterfalls. You start off by passing the main falls and then making your way to the Horseshoe, the second set of the falls that got its name due to its resemblance to a horseshoe. You get a raincoat at the entrance which is a necessary touch as you will end up getting wet. What we didn't know is that you will get VERY wet. Everything was fun and games up until we got to the Horseshoe. Enormous winds and the close proximity to such giant body of water made it barely visible with water flying all over the place. While it was hectic and wet, it was a lot of fun standing in the middle of this nature's creation and experiencing this firsthand. During the boat ride we even got into Canada for a brief minute. I guess I can cross Canada off my list now since I have already been there!
Our final destination was the Cave of the Winds. We foolishly thought that we can't get any wetter than we got from the activities described above. Oh how naive we were! The Cave of the Winds is the wettest you will ever get. The activity consists of you walking up the deck which runs directly below the falls. Therefore, you end up standing literally below the waterfall with all of the consequences. While this activity puts you in the extremely cold water of the Niagara Falls it was by far the most fun we had in the park. It is very amusing seeing adults jump around, screaming in the water and acting like kids. The only downside to this activity? You are completely soaked and if there is no sun out then you are in big trouble!
After getting completely wet from standing underneath the waterfalls, we came to the cafeteria area to warm up in the sun and let our clothes dry a bit. If you ever go to Niagara Falls, don't make a mistake of wearing jeans. You will regret it, believe me! After getting some sun and drying up a bit, we went for a walk around the national park area. What I liked about Niagara Falls is that you don't have to pay for admission and you can access most of the areas without having to pay a single dollar. I was impressed that they didn't charge you for every single thing as a lot of famous landmarks tend to do. While walking around the park territory we stumbled across some black squirrels. As our tour guide explained to us, there are a bunch of those in the Niagara Falls area and they are just regular Eastern gray squirrels who have pigmentation issues and as such they turned black. He also told us that these squirrels are pretty popular among the tourists, especially Australians. Apparently, there are no squirrels in Australia so Aussies are not used to seeing this animal anywhere in the wild. We spent the total of five hours in the park and we could have easily spent another two or three hours there but unfortunately we were on a schedule and had to go. In the conclusion, I would recommend visiting Niagara Falls and seeing this beauty with your own eyes. The photos and stories don't do these falls justice as the size and beauty of Niagara Falls are non-describable.
After we got done observing the beauty of Niagara Falls we made our way to Buffalo, a city located not far from the falls. This city is a birthplace of a very famous piece of American cuisine. Yes, you got that right! Buffalo wings were invented in that very city hence the name. We could not pass on the opportunity to try Buffalo wings at the place where it got invented and went to the Anchor Bar, the restaurant that holds the title of the Buffalo wings inventor. We ordered some of their famous wings and got prepared for something extraordinary. I have to say, however, that the wings there were no different than any other wings place. It was still nice to order some wings at the place that invented them back in 1964.
