CROSSING THE BORDER TO CANADA WITH AN RV
We crossed into Canada from Michigan. I was totally stressed for the two days prior trying to determine what foods were permitted into Canada via an RV. There really wasn’t any resource online with cut and dry answers. Since our frozen steaks were not in the original store packaging, we had grilled steak for two nights before leaving Michigan. Cooked meat seemed to be OK, so I grilled another steak to be sliced for steak salad later while we are in Canada. At this point I just resigned myself to “So be it – whatever happens – happens.” I’ve done what I could to make use of the more costly cuts of meat, and fresh produce.
Canada now requires “ArriveCAN”, an online app, to be completed within 72 hours of crossing the border. It is meant to speed things up when at the border. (And it does – as long as people know to do it in advance!) I think it is mainly for proof of Covid vaccinations since you have to upload documentation of the Original 2-dosages, no boosters are needed or even asked about.
We made it to the Bluewater Bridge/Sarnia border crossing a little before 9am, Sunday morning. We pulled right up! Boy, were the lanes narrow! I had to carefully ease up through the lane to the border agent. He smiled and complimented me on going nice and slow to the booth. He said someone the day before came in too fast, and destroyed his passenger side mirror!
I handed our passports to the agent along with the ArriveCan app opened on my phone. The agent only asked us if we had any firearms, tobacco, or alcohol/liquor. (No firearms, No tobacco, 3 bottles of wine, a 6-pack of beer, and one bottle of vodka—about 2/3 full.) That was it, less than five minutes from US side into Canada. I stressed for nothing. The crossing was easy-peasy.
We arrived at the Niagara Falls KOA Holiday! What a nice park with friendly, courteous staff!
We drove into town to see the “lay of the land” to better know how to plan out our next two days. Seeing that all parking options anywhere in the vicinity were $30 for the day, we opted for the 48-hour WeGo pass ($15 for each adult), and it was available at the KOA office/store. WeGo had an official KOA stop opposite the park entrance. The 48-hour period for the pass does NOT start till you board your first bus. Perfect!
August 15 – Ready, Set, GO!
Monday morning we got up at 4:45 am, and caught the first WeGo bus of the morning at 6am. We got off at the transfer station near Horseshoe Falls. Oh, my—the amount of mist we encountered was like a rain shower! The ground wasn’t just wet. There were major puddles all around this area. Why did we go so early?? We wanted to see the sun rise up behind the falls. An unexpected benefit was that we were there with no one else around! It was awesome. It was like our own private falls.
SUNRISE
Barry’s video below lets you hear the rush of the water as it runs over the edge to the river below.
A quick video that encompasses Horseshoe Falls, American Falls + Bridal Falls.
AMAZING FACTS About Horseshoe Falls that I did not know:
The falls was not always at the current location! What!?!? The steep edge where the water flows over, known as the brink of the falls. has slowly moved south 7 miles from its original position at the Niagara Escarpment near the Village of Queenston. WOW!
How did this happen??
The Niagara River carries 20% of the world’s fresh water, flowing from four of the Great Lakes. Traveling at 40mph, the water’s speed combined with the huge volume of water has immense erosive power. The lower layers of shale and sandstone are soft and erode more quickly than the top layers of dolomite and limestone. As the lower layers eroded, the falls kept moving south. Fortunately, in the twentieth century, engineering and water diversion intervened to slow the erosion rate from 10 feet every year, down to only one foot every 10 years!
Below is an aerial view of the moving Falls from 1678 to Today. Thank goodness they found a way to delay erosion movement to 1 ft every decade!
Since the mid-1900s, the volume of water flowing along the Niagara River has been controlled for industry and hydro-electric power generation on both sides of the border. During summer daylight hours, an incredible 34 million gallons of water flows over the brink of the Falls every minute! That’s enough to fill 1 million bathtubs! I knew the Falls was immense and powerful, but WOW! 1 million bathtubs!
Views along the Canadian walkway that runs parallel to the river.
The beautiful gardens. There is a restaurant near by called “The Secret Garden Cafe”. This definitely feels like a Secret Garden!
After taking in the views from the Canadian side, we walked across the Rainbow Bridge to the USA side to ride “The Maid of the Mist”. The Canadian side has the same type boat ride, but we already had our reservations for The Maid of the Mist, plus, we wanted to checkout vantage points from the American side. (You must have passports to enter the U.S. and to re-enter Canada! Don’t go through the turnstile without knowing you have them, or you will be stuck on the bridge between the countries!) It costs $1 per person to cross the bridge (paid only when going from CAN to USA).
Views from the bridge:
Our destination:
Aboard the Maid of the Mist:
Here we come, Horseshoe Falls!
Returning to the Maid of the Mist dock.
Hiking up to a crow’s nest viewing area for the American Falls.The power of the Falls is incredible!
Then we took the tower elevator back up to tower observation deck.
The white arrows in the picture below indicate the Crow’s Nest viewpoint where we just were, and in the distance, the Goat Island View area that we will be getting to shortly.
The three pictures below are from the walkway in the park near the American Falls and along the Niagara River.
The picture directly above of the Niagara River shows the bridge we headed to that took us to Goat Island. (We had no idea of the spectacular views we would soon experience!)
Bubble-Man along the way:
Oh my, I had no idea I was walking to an extremely close vantage point for American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls! It was incredible!! Such a rush! It was so loud, so wet, abbsolutely breathtaking! Barry and I were both exhausted, but this unexpected treat was worth it, and reenergized us for our trek back to Canada.
The picture below (taken from the Canadian side) shows the location of this flat viewing area on Goat Island between the American Falls on the left and Bridal Veil Falls on the right. It was so worth the addition hike here!
We loved our experience on the US side of the Falls because of the cool vantage points offered. It exceeded our expectations. While the Canadian side has the best open view of all three Falls (American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Horseshoe Falls), the USA side provides close proximity where you can feel the power of the Falls. The two short clips below are an attempt to incorporate that sensation, but it still pales to standing there experiencing it live.
Getting through the pedestrian border station back into Canada took forever. There was a line, but not that terribly long—it just didn’t move! My guess is that many in the line had no idea about needing the ArriveCAN app. Unfortunately, the internet signal was not strong enough till you were about to enter the door to a solo border agent handling everyone. It took us an hour from getting in line till we were back in Canada. I think having just one agent may have been sufficient if everyone walking over was prepared with the ArriveCan app.
We enjoyed a much needed sitdown break with a snack and beverage on an outdoor patio with a view of all three falls.
Before catching the bus at the Table Rock Transfer Station to go “home” for dinner, we decided to go in Table Rock so we would know where to go tomorrow for the “Journey Behind the Falls”. So glad we did this! The line to PURCHASE tickets went clear through the building almost to the front door! The line to exchange online vouchers for physical tickets only had a few people, so we got in line since we had online vouchers. The gal said that tomorrow both lines will be extremely long even before they open. (She was right!) Glad we now had our physical tickets. Tomorrow we just head to the tunnel entrance.
We returned to the Falls after dinner to see the illumination. It was so cool!
I was happy with the falls just being illuminated like this–but it got even better!
The real light show is about to begin!
Niagara Falls at NIGHT was so cool. I like how the plain white light simply made the falls stand out in such stark contrast with the dark river and night sky.
Each color and color combo was spectacular.
But my favorite was the rainbow lighting.
Horseshoe Falls:
American & Bridal Falls:
Glorious!
Every night there is a fireworks display at the Falls. The best viewing place (on the Canadian side) is opposite the American Falls, but on the main walkway along the water. By being closer to the water, there is less light interference. The lighting of the falls is subdued during the fireworks. Traffic along the road stops during the fireworks. Probably best for the safety of everyone. The fireworks last only five minutes, but was well done.
We put in 28,000 steps today! I couldn’t believe how much my entire body ached. We were both totally exhausted. I think the amount of standing got to both of us. Tomorrow will be a shorter, and less taxing day on us.
DAY 2-August 16, 2022
It rained through the night and continued into most of the morning. It was perfect for sleeping in! We caught the 11am WeGo bus to Table Rock where we went straight to “The Journey Behind the Falls”. There was still a lot of cloud cover and heavy mist, but we decided to give it a shot now anyway.
Next, we boarded the WeGo Green Line North to see the fully functioning Floral Clock. The flowers and plants are maintained as well as the workings of the clock. Our driver told us if all we were doing was taking pictures of the clock, he’d wait five minutes for us to re-board and head back to the falls area. That worked out great!
We got off at the “Rainbow Bridge” stop to walk up Clifton Hill to check out Lundy’s Lane, a definite tourist area. It was fun to look at the building facades.
Barry and I had our first Tim Horton’s coffee. The line was long, but most were getting a sweet treat, like the Tim Bits (donut holes), in addition to their coffee. We got the original iced cappuccino – yum. Thank goodness I just got a small because I’m sure the sugar/carb count was higher than I want to know! I earned it yesterday though – does that count?
The skies cleared up quite a bit, so we decided to ride the 175 ft SkyWheel. ($15 each). They have FUN passes for this area if you want to do more, but this was all we were interested in doing. The Dinosaur Golf looked pretty cool from the SkyWheel, but we were about done for the day.
Views from the SkyWheel:
The Canada Trading Company had our size in the t-shirts we liked. With everything now checked off “our list”, we called it a day. Our Niagara Falls trip was totally awesome! We had a fabulous time.
We caught the WeGO bus right in this area, and headed back to the KOA. Once we were “home” we decided we didn’t need to go back for the nighly illumination and fireworks again. It was a GREAT two days at Niagara Falls!!
Tomorrow we go into New York!
Wow, very professional looking page, really enjoyed it.
Thank you so much! That means a lot!