This weekend’s postcard comes from Niagara Falls in New York. We visited them in August, and it was my first time. You feel the rumble of the falls. The roar of the water cascading onto the rocks below, while not deafening, is impressive.
The falls drain Lake Erie into Lake Ontario. According to http://www.niagarafallslive.com, Three sets of waterfalls comprise Niagara Falls: American Falls(between Prospect Point and Luna Island),Bridal Veil Falls (between Luna Island and Goat Island), and Canadian Falls (between Goat Island and Table Rock). The volume of water going over the falls at any given second varies but during the summer, when we visited, it averages 100,000 cubic feet per second during the day and (due to water diversion) 50,000 CFS at night.
(Click on picture to enlarge it)
Nullius in Verba 
Nice. One of these days I’ll have to drag myself upstate and visit.
It is worth it.
Niagra is definitely on my wishlist of places to visit. Your photos made me want to be there soon.
K
You simply must. It took me 60 years to finally get to see them. The falls are spectacular all year round (we were told).
It has always been somewhat mystifying to me how attractions close to home are neglected in favor a far-away ones.
We moved to the US over three years ago and have been all over the place – Miami, SF & Northern California, the Southwest, Yellowstone, Maine and many other places but upstate NY? Crickets. Heck, we haven’t even been to The Cloisters and that’s about 90 minutes by subway from Brooklyn. Pathetic I must admit.
My theory: Unknowns excite the imagination. What’s yours?
Well, I had been to the Grand Canyon etc. before so it wasn’t unknown to me. I think it’s more a case of being in explorer mode, so to speak. A mood that you create by purposefully resolving to go somewhere else and look at stuff.
Back in Hamburg I had several people visitng who raved about this or that attraction I never bothered visiting despite living there for a decade. Perhaps the fact that these things lay close to home imparts some of the daily drudgery and humdrum-ness onto them?
Then again, perhaps it’s just plain lazyness. It’s just something that has mildly annoyed me about myself for quite some time.
You’re less than an hour away from the falls. The tourists have evaporated for the season. The snow hasn’t decided to stay until June. Now couldn’t be a better time. I would be happy to post more photos if you were to email them to me.
I am envious that you’ve been to the Grand Canyon. We missed it on our trip home, it would have added four hours to our trip, and we ‘needed’ to get to our destination before sunset in order to find our friends’ house.
Yep. I had actually discussed this with the wife and we’ll include it in our new year’s resolution.
Grand Canyon is obviously one of those things one should see before one dies. I’ve been there two times and it’s just, well, grand. Especially if you have the time and fitness to hike to the Colorado river.
Tourists are a good point by the way. From your pictures it looks like the falls are pretty much hedged in and that’s something that also makes me prefer Zion over the Grand Canyon for instance. It’s just a much more private experience. Not a very logical stance as I am there crowding the scenery myself.
The Three Sisters Islands (actually four islands exist) are located approximately 500 yards east of the Horseshoe Falls along the southeast side of Goat Island. In 1843, these islands were called Moss Islands because the rock surfaces of the islands were covered in moss. The Sister Islands were named after the three daughters of General Parkhurst Whitney. General Whitney was an American commander during the War of 1812. Following the war, General Whitney became a very successful businessman. He owned and operated the Cataract Hotel in Niagara Falls, New York. In the spring of 1816, General Whitney took his three daughters, Asenath, Angeline and Celinda Eliza to visit the islands. On this visit, they became the first to visit the third island, which was the furthest. This was only possible because of the ice jam upstream of the Falls. The ice had reduced the dangerous rapids dramatically and ice clogged the water channel. At the time there weren’t any bridges to any of the islands. Whitney and his daughters walked to the third island by crossing on the ice. General Whitney was so proud of his daughters’ feat, that he asked the owners of the islands, Peter and Augustus Porter , to rename them after his three daughters and his infant son. In 1834, the first island closest to Goat Island was still known as Deer Island. The second island became known as Asenath, the third as Angeline and the fourth as Celinda Eliza. Today the Three Sister Islands have been renamed. The first island is called ASENATH, the second island is called ANGELINE, the third island is called CELINDA ELIZA. The fourth known as Little Brother Island is named SOLON.
Good to know.