NIAGARA FALLS!!! Slowly I turned....
That title is the refrain from a classic burlesque comedy routine that has practically nothing to do with Niagara Falls. But then, the Cave of the Winds at Niagara Falls is not a cave. It's a wooden catwalk that takes you to the bottom of a waterfall just a few feet above the Niagara River, where the wind and swirling mist are as blinding as a hurricane. There is one connection between the comedy routine and Niagara Falls: If you want to see the entire vista spread out in front of you, you have to stand on the Canadian side, halfway between the top of the Canadian Horseshoe and the bottom of the American Falls. Then you turn slowly 180 degrees to see it all, like I did at dawn on Friday. It inspires awe, especially when you get inside the Falls at the Cave of the Winds, or sail a boat so far into the Horseshoe that you're surrounded by water on three sides. The boat that took me there is called The Maid of the Mist. Before I get into a few tips for travelers and some Niagara Falls trivia for people with minds as trivial as mine, I want to explore that feeling of awe.
This is my second visit to the Falls. The first was when I was 3 years old. I was scared to death. For a 3-year-old, fear of something that huge and overpowering is a form of awe. This time, more confident in the security of the guard rail, I only felt the awe without the fear. I've never been to the Grand Canyon, but when people talk about their trips, it sounds like it made them feel something like what I felt visiting the Falls.
I feel awe when I'm body surfing in the ocean. I turn my body into a surfboard, time my wave so it breaks on my heels and carries me at top speed until it runs out of water and disappears, like a fist when you open your hand. I'm in contact with the fundamental elements: water, salt, wind, sun, and the electro-magnetic power of the moon, that controls the tides. That's what I felt when I went down to the river and immersed myself in Niagara Falls. If I came from a different religious culture than mine, it would have been a baptism.
Like the ocean and the tides, making the Falls took infinite time, resources, power and creativity. The question is, was that infinite power acting consciously with a purpose, or was it just the coincidental interaction of water, rock and wind doing what comes naturally? Since I'll never know the answer, I don't spend time thinking about the question. I don't even feel the need to know the answer. I'm worse than an agnostic, who doesn't know but thinks about it a lot. I don't even think about it. But in the presence of the infinite, (or Infinite, depending on your point of view), I do feel awe, but do not name or worship it in any organized way someone else would recognize.
So here's how I spent my day: After sunrise and breakfast, I came back to the American side and splurged on a guided tour of the area. Gray Lines has tours of the American side, the Canadian side, and both. One side costs $80 for adults, less for children, and both cost $145. You can tour the two sides on different days. In my opinion, there is not $65 worth of difference between the Canadian tour and the American tour, no need to pay for two tours. The price sounds high, but nearly half of it is admission to the Cave, the Maid, and a cute 3-D movie. Without the tour, you'd pay for each of those individually. The tour also frees you from the need to drive and park the car all day, or pay for parking and wait for trolleys that run from attraction to attraction. You just park for free at the hotel where you buy your ticket and catch the bus. My bus was comfortable, but Gray Lines might has buses that are not that good, according to some customer feedback the Internet.
The main benefit from the $80 is the driver/guide. Tom Fraterrigo, a pleasant, well-organized, outgoing retired Postal employee. He got us everywhere in plenty of time, and did not rush anyone who wanted to gift shop, take a longer look, or visit a bathroom. The trip, scheduled for four hours, took exactly that long. But he never behaved like an overbearing goatherd dealing with a bunch of idiots, an occupational hazard for tour guides. He attributed this ability to six years of experience guiding tours. He says he can now relax, knowing he can handle the unexpected in ways that would have thrown him early on. And he can let his customers wander freely without losing control of the group, just by telling them how to recognize one another, where to get back together, and when to get there.
And he told us things about the history and geology of the area that we would not see just by looking. My argument with the company's price is that, ten minutes after the tour started, I noticed a sign on the bus that said the drivers live on tips, and a 15 percent gratuity is appropriate. That's an extra $12 that nobody told us about. I also feel that skilled, experienced workers should get paid without asking, or depending on the kindness of strangers. On the other hand, if each adult or couple on my tour gave him 15 percent, he took home about $100 for four hours' work.
So here are some things I learned from my driver/guide.
Scientists believe Niagara Falls was formed 12,000 years ago, when the Glacier caused the flat Niagara River to start falling from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario. The Falls original location was miles from where it is today. The Falls moved here in 12,000 years, a nano-second on the geological clock. And they're probably still moving.
Under a treaty signed in the 1950s, the United States and Canada control the amount of water that goes over the Falls. There's a dam upstream with gates that they open wide during the day in the tourist season. But they narrow the opening at night and in the off-season, sending just enough water (it's still plenty) to power the massive hydro-electric dams on each side.
In 1969, the Army Corps of Engineers shut off the American Falls, like a faucet, and diverted all the water into the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The American cliff was eroding at an alarming rate, and a catastrophe was possible, at least theoretically. With the water turned off, the Corps did an exhaustive geological study, and tightened and reinforced the cliff side as much as they could. Now the American Falls only lose about a foot a year. Driving up the gorge from the bottom of the hydroelectric dams, we could see from the bus that these cliffs are made of loose sediment and shale, not anything solid like granite. And look what happened to the Old Man in The Mountain.
Some other factoids from the tour:
* Twenty percent of the earth's fresh water (the Great Lakes) flows over Niagara Falls.
* More water flows over Niagara Falls than any other in the world.
* The "brink" of the American Falls is 1060 wide (3 1/2 football fields), and 176 feet high a 17.6-story building. 150,000 gallons of water per second come over the edge.
* The Canadian Horseshoe Falls is 2,600 feet across (nearly 9 football fields) and 167 feet high. 16.7 stories. 600,000 gallons per second fall over the edge.
* An ice bridge forms under the Falls each winter. Visitors were allowed to walk and play on it until 1912.
* The deepest portion of the Niagara River is 170 feet, directly below the Falls, as deep as the Falls are high.
And at night, on the Canadian side, they bathe the falls in colored light, a sight I still remember from when I was three years old.
The Canadians asked me for proof of citizenship, a passport or birth certificate and a government issued photo ID, like a driver's license. They ran the information through a computer for five minutes and let me enter. The Americans asked for the birth certificate and photo ID, but when I reached for the birth certificate, he said he did not have to see it. The officials on both sides were painfully polite, but it's an intimidating, absolutely necessary procedure.
