First Time Visiting The Falls:

What To Expect And Certain Highlights

By Julieanne LaDuca

Even though I have lived in WNY for 18 years, I have never visited Niagara Falls. The Falls is a glorious place that really opens you up to their beauty of nature. Going for the first time there weren’t really any surprises except for how much I truly enjoyed myself while I was there. The crowds it gets now doesn’t do it justice as it may be one of the seven wonders, but if you haven’t been it’s a whole new experience.

One of the major highlights was just the extravagant level of beauty nature held between the cherry blossoms trees and flower beds with bright colored flowers. The scenery was a real catch, but when you get to the actual Falls it’s a whole ‘nother level. It was breathtaking for my first time seeing it, and even though I couldn’t do maid of the mist which is one of the main attractions, it was still a perfect day spent at the park. Maid Of The Mist is a boat ride that is open in the summer allowing visitors to goo behind the falls and get splashed, it’s a very popular attraction.

Along with the sights of the actual Falls and rapids there was certain information that was held up on signs around the park. The information often given was about the water flow, different things to do, sites around, and a map that gave specific directions.

It was super interesting to see the flow in person and actually know specifically how much water flowed throughout a certain amount of seconds. The water flowing sign that was displayed included the summer daytime flow as 75,000 gallons per second along with 285,000 seconds.

When it came to the map being shown there were: trails, the actual Falls, Observation Tower, Maid Of The Mist, a gift shop, and restrooms (which were actually really surprising to find in a public park that was outside. There were many other little spots along the way not featured on the sign like: coffee shops, restaurants on the border, and other little spots along the border.

Something else I discovered while I was there was the fact that they were actually doing construction inside a closed gate. There was a little sidewalk that went all the way down to the rocks of the falls and right above the pathway of stairs there was construction. The construction was building several items including: an overlook structure connecting to the current crows nest feature, creating opportunities by accessing the lower part of the gorge, and creating new ways to interact with Falls itself.

I would highly recommend this local park especially in the summer when the Maid Of The Mist is opened it would be a really cool ride opportunity. It’s definitely worth the parking fee if you just wanna go to the sites and make a little day out of it to relax and unwind. The setting and everything was perfect. I’m not upset at all with the timing I went even though the Maid Of The Mist isn’t open, it just made me more excited for the next time.