During my stay at Schenectady, NY . I had a chance to take a day trip to *Niagara Falls, before visiting Niagara Falls, hell lot of thought was going through my mind, how great a just waterfall can be? Its just water falling from the height, After all, it is just water and it is just falling and so on…… Although I hail from near by town of Lonavala and Khandala which is famous for number of scenic waterfalls around, also I have been to Hognekal, Jog Fall and few of Kangra valley waterfalls.
Perhaps experience of Niagara is some thing different, the natures work at its best. It’s fantastic, Amazing and spectacular. I started my journey with one more colleague on one summer weekend on the Americas popular bus service Grey hound, to Buffalo. Distance between Schenectady to Niagara is just 270 miles, 7 hours journey by bus. We reached Buffalo early morning, roamed around for a while, took a next bus to Niagara at 7:00am, a 20 minute drive from Buffalo.
We were so desperate to see the falls, we immediately rushed starting walking towards the sound of gushing water came from and found ourselves on the lanes of Goat Island. The beauty of *Goat Island *is it splits the course of the Niagara River, resulting in the separation of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls to the west from the American and Bridal Veil Falls to the east.
Once we cross the pedestrian bridge to Goat Island we lost the path and went directly towards American falls, perhaps a mistake happens for good.
We finished watching the American falls taking all kind of posed snaps, we moved towards the Main Platform on American side called *Terrapin Point, * near to the horseshoe falls, by the time we reached there, we were hearing water gushing sound, Gulls flying above and here come the photo shot moment, It was just a amazing moment, a huge rainbow welcomed us, it was starting at the bottom of horseshoe falls and reaching the top of casino tower Bldg on Canadian side, simply superb, Marvelous!!! What to say about the natures beauty, I never experienced this kind of rain bow before, the sight was enchanting.
After spending some time there, we noticed from the top a small ferry named “Maid of mist” sailing towards the base of Horse shoe falls, Now I couldn’t resist myself, I asked my buddy “ How about sailing that ferry”? He readily accepted, immediately we rushed to the Niagara state park tourist center, purchased a complete package of Niagara tourism called “Passport to the falls”.
Our first trip of package started with collecting our kit, sandals and raincoat rather I would say a Yellow ‘mist coat’, after wearing the attire, we queued to visit ‘cave of winds’ thorough the Jet Lift going down at cruising speed, 170 meters down, reached there in few seconds, we rolled towards the platform standing on the rocks, the wooden platform beneath the Picturesque American falls, what a sight? The sight of water so close to us simply lifted up….. And within seconds people were vying with each other to have a face splash. Dudes watch it!! As if water poured from the thousand gallon big drum , which was scattering after falling to the rocks in front, hitting us with such a force that we were left breathless for a few seconds. I had to retrace my steps, as I had to take care of my Camera. Amazing!!! This feeling was overwhelming which can’t be expressed just in words u have to be there.
One more prettiest thing around the cave of winds is, it’s also a largest colony of ‘Gulls’ a beautiful flock of birds all over making human like sound as if they wanna talk to u…crazy watching them. The trip to Cave of winds was mind blowing.
We moved back to the top of Island, we were hungry by now, had a brunch along with the gulls in a open roof restaurant.
Started for over next destination the Observation tower, from the tower again a lift down to Maid of mist boarding point. And to my surprise we found 70% were “Desi” on board.
Maid of the Mist is the ferry ride, which actually takes you through the Niagara Falls, Niagara falls which is comprised of three separate falls Horseshoe fall, American fall and bridal veil fall. Out of them the most spectacular one is the Horse shoe falls also called Canadian fall, which is panoramically huge and mighty. We were again given raincoats to keep us from getting wet. But this time the color was Blue. I felt the water was just sprinkling across, a cool breeze and misty all around it was the best sprinkler you could ever lay your hands upon with the water droplets traveling far and wide once they reach the falls. The tour of ‘Maid of the Mist” was as truly great; I heard even our Late Prime minister Pandit Nehru visited Maid of Mist. Initially it was fine, with the ferry swaying along the waters and we swaying along with the ferry. Then the amazing view of the Horse shoe falls was unveiled. The most common cry that could be heard over the sound of the ferry Engine was WOOVVWW!!!!! It was worth the overnight sleepless trip, worth journey and worth the overall trip.
We painted the beauty of the falls on the digital chip of our camera. As we went more and more close to the falls, the water splashing from the rocks were all on to the boat and the raincoats were pretty useful. But, the most fun part was taking the snaps when the water was falling across your face blinding you for a moment. People were yelling WOVVWe, superb, mind blowing…..We were reluctant to go back not willing to move away from the falls, wanted to feel every drop touching our body and soul.
The picture of Niagara in our minds will stay forever and every time we see any other falls, for sure, at least for a moment, the mighty Niagara will be coming to our minds. I am sure anybody who has been to Niagara would agree to my statement.
After relaxing a bit we visited three sisters Island, Aquarium, the adventure theatre for a movie “Niagara” and then the discovery center. Now it was time to say good bye!!! To Niagara, back to Niagara city bus stop, at the stop we went for a shopping for the souvenirs in a dare devil museum.
Next day we were not stopping, talking about Niagara to our roommates.
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