Oh Canada! So weird to be driving into a foreign country. Last Sunday (while in Buffalo, New York for my Grandfather’s 90th birthday) the whole family entered Canada via the Peace Bridge to visit Niagara Falls.

From there we drove up the Niagara Scenic Parkway, leisurely winding our way along the river to the Falls. Below is our first sight of the mist rising above Niagara Falls (and the plethora of hotels on the Canadian side).

We found parking and made our way down to a spot just across from the American Falls. The little chunk of falling water on the right is actually a separate waterfall, the Bridal Veil Falls.

Then we walked over to view the Canadian side of the Falls, popularly known as “Horseshoe Falls” due to its iconic U-shape.

Note: If you have any interest in buying a print of these photos, please don’t hesitate to send me an email.

I had no clue the Maid of the Mist basically “drove” into the bottom of the waterfall. Something we’ll have to do next time.

It was amazing that we could stand so close to the edge of the Falls. The lip was mere feet away. I could almost touch it.

We all took an elevator down to the base of the Horseshoe Falls for the unbelievable views and deafening roar from below. Of course we also got unbelievably drenched by the mist.

Me and Stephanie in our yellow plastic bag “mistcoats.” Hawt. I mean haute.

Afterwards, Stephanie, Dad, and I drove downriver, north of the whirlpool, and hiked into the gorge created by thousands of years of the Falls eating away at the rock. I found it very interesting to learn that in the future:

the falls will eventually recede far enough to drain most of Lake Erie, the bottom of which is higher than the bottom of the falls. Engineers are working to reduce the rate of erosion to postpone this event as long as possible.

I had a faint and somewhat intimidating memory of doing a similar hike when I was much younger, so I was keen to revisit the scale of the whirlpool and the gorge. Turns out it wasn’t nearly so scary. I seemed to remember being afraid of getting sucked into the water. I’m sure at the time my parents strongly emphasized not going near the river—due to its strong and unpredictable currents.

Panoramic view the river within the gorge (created with hugin)

Update, May 13, 2011: Due to the popularity of this post, I went back and cleaned up the text, wrote captions, and added the ability to enlarge the photos. Thanks for reading.