Today I had the full day off, so we were headed out to Niagara Falls. By distance it’s not too far from Toronto, but Canada is yet to discover fast trains so it still took 2 hours. (It was actually serviced by Amtrak, so maybe none of North American has found out about quick trains yet. Should we tell them? 😬)
We got the 8:20 train from Union station, so we were in Niagara Falls (yes, that is actually the name of the town too), by 10:30. We headed to the falls on foot, there is a bus, but you know how we feel about busses.
I got a bit worried on the way up that we might miss the falls. I’d not brought my passport and was concerned that they might be just tucked around a corner on the other side of the boarder or something. Etienne had been before and try to reassure me that they are pretty big & that we would be able to see them, I was doubtful though. Turns out he was right. After a short walk they came into view – first the American Falls, then the Niagara Falls themselves. They were nice, big, water-fally.
After staring at the falls for a bit and taking a million terrible photos, we grabbed some lunch then made our plans for the afternoon –
Option A: The “Behind the Falls” experience – in summer this includes a boat, but in winter it’s just down to the platform at water level. Still would’ve been cool I reckon though; must be super loud down there.
Option B: Wander down to the “Niagara Whirlpool” for a walk I’d found on All Trails.
Option B won as the reviews included comments like “a hidden gem” and “the falls get all the attention, but this trail was beautiful” – the type of words to sway us.
We’d planned to get the bus down this time but it was $12 each and really didn’t look that far, so we fell into our usual ‘lets just walk it’ habit. (We may have underestimated the distance this time around, but part of the walk was through the town center, which was cool to see – so happy we did it despite my sore feet later in the day!)
The trail itself was stunning; definitely the highlight of the last few days… we rambled through the forest, along the shore of the Niagara River & played pooh sticks in the rapids. The clouds cleared by the time we hit the trail & weather was stunning again, so the coat didn’t get much wear – it was thrown on for a ceremonious picture though. 👌
I’ve included a link to the AllTrails route we took at the bottom of this post. There are there plenty of others though if you fancy something longer/shorter/just a bit different!
Eventually we looped back round & made our way back to the station to head home – tired, achy, but very happy. Absolutely awesome day, but definitely ready for bed!
See the full Gallery
See the route: AllTrails / Niagara Parks Map