The Admiral arranged for a two day car rental starting this morning (July 3, 2014), and we plan on a trip to Niagara Falls. During her walk this morning, the Admiral took the picture at the right of two boats the we had travelled with on/off for the past three days. The green boat trailing the dingy and the white boat at the far left are both staying on the wall in Tonawanda near us. I guess that it was unusual enough to see three larger boats travelling on the western Erie Canal that we were featured in the daily blog for Orleans County, NY (click on link below):
http://www.orleanshub.com/news2014/Nice-way-to-beat-the-heat.htm
First, a few numbers to help put things in perspective. Lake Erie is about 325 feet higher than Lake Ontario. That drop is accomplished along the Niagara River, which is about 36 miles long. About half of that drop (170 feet) occurs at Niagara Falls.
...and now to cut to the chase. We headed out in the rent car about 10:00 am, and when we arrived in Niagara Falls, we went directly to the Maid of the Mist tour boats. We have both been to the falls before (I've been to both the American and Canadian sides and Terry to only the Canadian side), but for me, the most impressive part is the boat trip in the turbulent waters while getting soaked by the mist from the falls. The picture at the left shows us after putting on our rain gear that was provided by the tour company. We were soon to put up the hoods and tie them securely once we left the dock.
We took many pictures, but I will only bore you with a few of them. Down in the canyon below the falls the noise is impressive. You can literally feel vibrations in the air, and the mist is everywhere. To me as a geologist, I have always been impressed by the power of nature, and this is an excellent place to experience that power. The picture at the right shows part of the American Falls, which are smaller and less impressive than the Horseshoe or Canadian Falls. The resistant vertical cliffs at the top are the Lockport Dolomite.
The underlying rocks are mainly shale, and as such, they are much more easily eroded than the dolomite. The shale erodes back leaving an overhanging cliff of the dolomite. The overhanging rock will eventually fail and fall to the bottom of the waterfalls. This has happened twice in recent history with the most recent rock fall being 60 years ago in 1954. This "pile" of rocks at the base of the American Falls is what makes them less impressive. Some attempts have been made to remove the debris, including using dynamite to break up larger pieces, but most of the debris remains today.
At the right is a view of a small portion of the Canadian (or Horseshoe) Falls. The water falls pretty much all of the way to the water level below. Up close, like in this picture, there is so much spray that it is difficult to get a picture through all of the mist. However, you can get a good idea of why the Canadian Falls are considered the "best" or at the very least, the most photogenic. After the boat tour, we took the elevator back up to the top, and the first thing that we noticed was how quiet it was. Down below in the canyon it was very uniformly loud so that we did not notice how loud it was until we were back in the "quiet".
The last picture is of the American Falls on the left and part of the Canadian Falls in the background that was taken from a view point on land at the top of the falls. Once again, you can see that the water going over the American Falls only falls about halfway down before it begins to hit the debris from the previous rock falls.
You can also see two of the tour boats in the river below. They look pretty small by comparison...
We then headed off to the Hard Rock Café for a nice lunch. We then drove around a bit before heading back to Lucky Us. Later it was time to (you should have guessed this by now) to head out to a movie. We saw "Earth to Echo" and found it entertaining although probably geared to a much younger crowd.
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