As we were walking along the path high above the river, a medium size diamond patterned snake slithered across our path. We ate lunch and then continued on south to the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center parking lot where we caught the Scenic Trolley and took another look around the park. Along the way the driver informed us that it has been estimated that the Falls will disappear in about four hundred years at the current rate of deteriation. Early in the 1900's, someone figured out how to divert the falls for the power plants thereby greatly slowing down the tearing down of the falls.
We returned to the Scenic Trolley and got off at the Visitors' Center. From here we could walk to the Observation Tower and the Maid of the Mist trip to get a really close up view of the Horseshoe Falls, too.
After a good view from the Tower, we boarded the elevator for the trip down to the base to get on the Maid of the Mist. As our boat cruised to the base of the American Falls, then to the basin of the huge Horseshoe Falls, we could feel the rough water and stronger winds created by the falling water thundering down to crash onto the rocks. In order to get out of the pull of this action, the captain had to power up and swing rapidly away from it. It was extremely loud as we got closer and closer. We also got wetter and wetter - it felt like we were in a tropical storm!
We couldn’t hear each other talk, nor could anyone with glasses on see anything even under the canopy which protected us from most of the hard spray.
We could really see the destruction of the Falls from the boat.
