Panorama Two Falls

I tried in vain to capture the awe of Niagara Falls. The short clip “Panorama” comes close to displaying the breadth of the the two Falls: American and Canadian (Horseshoe). If you click the file twice, you can see the Canadian cruise boat heading toward the Horseshoe Falls as it passes the American Falls. The next day we were on that boat getting as close to the Horseshoe Falls as safely possible.

The awe can be felt from the top as well as the surface of the river. The movie clip below gives a sense of the sheer volume of water passing over one end of the Horseshoe Falls.  75,750 gallons of water per second over the American and Bridal Veil Falls and 681,750 gallons per second over the Horseshoe Falls.

You can feel the power and volume up close. From a distance, it looks like someone broke a valve and a huge quantity of water is pouring over a cliff into a basin that washes it downstream.

Horseshoe Falls

On the left a boat passes the American Falls. On the right a boat approaches the Horseshoe Falls, a little more upstream from the American. I stood on the Canadian side of the river to take the boat pictures, but the next day we were on the same boat sailing with our red souvenir ponchos

Below you can share our intrepid voyage into the Horseshoe Falls, the powerful cataract that raised a cloud of mist up into the atmosphere hundreds of feet above the cresting waterfall.  Once you are nearly under the Falls, the boat pilot lets you linger in the raining mist, and before we are waterlogged, steers us around to catch the current of river propelling us downstream toward the American falls.

It reminded me of descending to the Bryce Canyon floor and looking up at the spires and hoodoo’s that lined the floor of the cany0n– a perspective to make you smaller and  insignificant. Here you also feel dwarfed by the power and height of the Falls, and somehow less potent.

Then we turn and escape the wrath of the terrible swift falls and feel a little safer, if not invincible. It is a hero journey in 20 minutes. Not very expensive, as hero journeys go.