Niagara Falls: Skip the City

Day 281
​Niagara Falls NY

You'd think a town of 50,000 people who gets 12 million visitors a year for one of the most iconic waterfalls in the world would be a really nice place to visit. You would be wrong. Leaving the state park let us come through Niagara Falls on the north side and boy oh boy was it an ugly place. This small city is rated as the 49th most dangerous place in the entire US, and tops the list at #1 in the state of New York. Block after block of buildings and homes have bars across the windows. People come here from around the world and this is what they can see within a 1/2 mile of the falls. The immediate downtown area wasn't much to talk about either. Store fronts and restaurants were also abandoned, just not boarded up.

We roll past the ugliness and re-focus on why we are here. Our first pit stop gives us a look out over the Niagara River. A cavalcade of water leaving Lake Erie on its way to Lake Ontario. It has a deep blue-green tint that can be seen a long ways away. ​

We keep going and find some street parking outside of the park. This is New York State after all. Sure the park is free, but it's $10 a vehicle to borrow a piece of pavement for the hour or two you are looking at the water. Our little city bikes come off the back of Shirley and we ride a little short of a mile to the main attraction.
​Horseshoe falls is dumping 667,000 gallons of water a second over the edge of a limestone cliff. That volume of water is equal to an Olympic size swimming pool. As impressive as that is, not all of the river's water cascades over the rocks. Anywhere between 25%-50% is diverted and ran through hydro electric power plants for both the US and Canada.

On the other side of Goat island are a couple of smaller falls. American falls below does not reach the same volume or sheer size of Horseshoe, but it remains impressive in it's own right.

We bike back across the bridge to make our way home. Fun to see; yes. Worth an entire weekend; no. If you've got the itch and Niagara is on your bucket list I'll make a bold suggestion for you. Head over to the Canadian side. The views are nicer and that city has a lot more to offer. Besides, you can only stare at falling water for so long. There needs to be more to do for a weekend trip and the US city of Niagara Falls doesn't have it.