Day 41 - Niagara Falls, NY

We are back on the road today to drive another 4 hours. Our destination is Four Mile Creek State Park on the U.S. side of Lake Ontario. We are spending the next 3 nights here, 30 minutes from Niagara Falls. There are campgrounds much closer but I’m glad we chose this one. Our spacious site backs up to Lake Ontario (20 feet below us), with a view all the way across to Toronto. Christopher is once again surprised at how large a lake can be (it is 193 miles long and 53 miles wide), and Jeremy is wishing we had a boat to water ski across it.

I’m impressed with how much money New York allocates to its state parks. (Though they might want to spend more money on their roads.) This one is huge too, with acres of manicured lawn. This campground only has electric hook-ups (which is still more than we are used to in CA). Normally when we are camping we don’t maintain a blog, so it wouldn’t matter that there is no wi-fi here. Jeremy particularly dislikes the odd, roving (mostly non-existent) cell service; he spends all of his free time roaming the massive campground looking for the latest bar of service. The laundry machine works and is cheap, though I’d much prefer an indoor one that isn’t surrounded by dirt and bird poop. The bathrooms have showers, and we are crossing our fingers that there is more than one water temperature. Greg and I had a good laugh at the other state campground this morning. We took two completely opposite approaches to the blazing hot shower – he blasted the water out and I barely turned mine on. (I guess it beat freezing cold water, but a mix would have been nice.)

In the evening we head to Niagara Falls on the Canada side. We get to use our passports! But first we have to wait (~30 minutes) in line at the border because they want to know your life story! Where are you from? What brings you all the way here? Are you driving up the East Coast? What do you do for a living that allows you to take so much time off? What will you be doing in Canada? How long will you be staying? What route are you driving on?

Then we all get our first view ever of Niagara Falls. American Falls is very pretty, but I know there’s more to look at. Horseshoe Falls, with its impressive plume of mist, is what takes our breath away. Even 1000 feet away we can feel its spray. I heard that Canada has a better view of the falls, and from our position, I’m suspicious if the U.S. has even half the view? Horseshoe Falls is tucked off to the side, so I’m sure the U.S. can’t see it in its entirety.

When it gets dark, the falls are illuminated with colored spotlights. I can’t decide if it is tacky, or pretty – but it is something to look at either way. And we finally get our fireworks fix, which reassures me … even though we were disappointed to miss the show in NYC, fireworks are fireworks.