Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Last Couple of Days in Niagara

After driving to the Fallsview Parking lot south of everything in Niagara, we parked the RV, got out and walked about a block to the bus stop where a PeopleMover bus was parked and waited and waited (about 20 minutes) for the driver to come back. We then found out the bus was not coming to this parking lot for regular runs until June 1! We drove back north and found a pay-to-park lot behind the Skylon Tower where we could pay to park for 24 hours (they charged us for two slots). This lot was not very large but placed us near the Table Rock Visitors' Center and Journey Behind the Falls as well as numerous restaurants.
After hiking down the hill which was about a 12 degree slope, we walked along the viewing area and got really great views of the falls in both countries. Unfortunately, about this time I realized I had left the camera in the RV. Not wanting to climb that mountain twice in one day, I looked for postcards about the Journey Behind the Falls but couldn't find any.
The Journey was truly behind the falls. We went down to the lower level, going straight ahead to a balcony that looked down on a patio reached by stairs,then we walked down a long tunnel which had two other tunnels off to the left that brought us within three to six feet of the water. The roar was very loud, the water looked like it was swirling up, and the tunnels are crumbling so we couldn't get as close as others had done in years past.

The next day I rode up in the 'yellow bug' elevator to the top of the Skylon Tower to see the whole area for about 80 miles in all directions.
We left the next morning to again drive down the Niagara Parkway. The odd thing about this very pleasant drive is that on the east side are numerous little wayside picnic/parking areas with great views of the river while on the west side are numbered service roads with five or six houses ranging from modest to mansion set back from the roads and open lawns between the service roads and the parkway. We left Canada by way of the Peace Bridge. Re-entering the US this time did not involve an onboard Ag inspection by a customs/ag agent. I guess that's only in Washington state.