Fort Niagara, Erie Canals and more of the Falls

Today we went to visit Fort Niagara State Park, it isn't what you normally think of as a state park. Actually is more like a town recreation area with various play grounds and ball fields. It is also empty being September and the kids being back in school.

It also has a small museum and Old Fort Niagara which we decide to checkout.

This cat was just lounging around at the fort. He was pretty cool, after I took his picture he let me pet him.

The Fort is pretty cool and mostly setup as it would have been back in the day. There are people dressed in period garb telling you about various parts of the fort.

I love this kind of stuff provided they don't try to act too much.

The living conditions were pretty rough unless you were high up in command.

We watched a blacksmith in the court main courtyard of the Fort make some tools and hooks and various items.

A little bit of rain started so we moved on.

Next was on to the Erie Canal. In Lockport NY you can walk around on and see locks 34 and 35 in action. It is pretty impressive as we watch this tour boat get lifted up through the two locks.

The boat tour probably would have been fun but it was almost a 4 hour commitment and we were already kind of tired from hiking around the fort.

On the right you can see the lock doors closing up getting ready fill with water and raise the boat up another level. There is a small room on the locks kind of a rough museum full of old logs and other pieces of hardware from locks.

It is still a little damp and we want some coffee but find nothing in the generally Lockport area so we head back to the campground for a french press of coffee. We just miss the big fella below landing but manage to snap this blurry picture as we drive by it taxing.


















After the coffee and a little relaxing we made dinner and decided to take the dogs to see the Falls at night. They are really lit up at night from the Canadian side.

Niagara Falls...

When we decided to do one last long trip before putting the trailer away for the winter we had to pick where to go. We wanted to go farther than we had before and see something we hadn't seen. So Maine was out and driving back through Jersey was out so we choose Niagara Falls as the destination.

We had been warned by some people we would be underwhelmed but we had a great time. We actually avoided a lot of touristy stuff at the falls which I think helped.

Often we do a lot of "different" touristy things like these first two picture show a  visit to the main American Hydro Power plant. Above on the right side of  the river is the american plant and the left side is the main Canadian plant.

It was pretty cool to see and had a small and empty museum. Many of the displays were sad and old or silly but they had a great movie about the history if hydro power in Niagara. And of course this cool diorama of how it all works.

 At the falls is a nice park for hiking around and we did all the trails, seeing the various falls from all different sides.

This picture is down at "Cave of the Winds" you get right to (But can no longer walk behind) the falls, you really feel the power of the water. And get to wear a silly yellow poncho, which practically disintegrates by the end of the tour it is so thin. It almost keeps you dry.

This is a picture take from the Maid of the Mist boat tour, which is really cool. Not only do you get a blue poncho (Much higher quality than the yellow ones) but you get really close to the falls. After the boat tour you can do a short walk along the falls as well.

Blue Ponchos everywhere!

I think the boat goes full power just to prevent being swept back from the power of the rushing water.

Those are the Canadian Falls, we never made it over to the Canadian side of the falls, I think it is mostly flashing signs and touristy stuff and we didn't think it was worth the trouble of crossing over.

These are the American Falls viewed from the observation tower that has the elevator down to the Maid of the Mist boat tour.

We had great weather and really no crowds at all which is nice.