Slowly I turned… step be step… inch by inch… Welcome to the land of rainbows and mist! By the way, visiting Niagara Falls on a weekday in the middle of November is a great way to avoid the crowds.

Leaving son Drew, good friends and Boston in my rearview mirror, I headed back towards the Airstream factory in Ohio to check on the progress of our trailer. I ended up the first day travel near Buffalo, NY so decided to spend a little time in nearby Niagara Falls.

This was not my first time to Niagara Falls, but it is one of those places that are so spectacular that you could watch it for hours. Oh, and take hundreds of pictures. Anyone who has been to the falls knows how easy it is to take a boatload of pictures. Here are a few of mine, although there are no pictures that really capture the full effect.

The river can seem so benign as you view it upriver from the falls. Yes it is wide, runs quietly, flat, and seemingly safe. Don’t be fooled, there is tremendous force and current on this river.

While the falls are spectacular, for me the river flowing up to the falls was as remarkable. Although not even close to the volume flowing through the Mississippi River, water flow through the Niagara River runs anywhere between 50,000 – 225,000 CFS (cubic feet per second). To put this in perspective, the Chattahoochee River in Georgia runs in the order of around 2,000 CFS; the Charles River in Boston on average runs around 300 CFS.

The falls (there are actually three of them) drains the Niagara River from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario. According to Wikipedia (if it’s on the internet it must be true), the three falls (Horseshoe, American and Bridal Veil) represent the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world; Horseshoe Falls is the height of a 16-story building.

What I found interesting (there is much that is) is because of the abrasive nature of the Niagara River, the riverbed gets carved out at about one foot per year, and as a result the falls will cease to exist in about 50,000 years. Stay tuned – I’ll post follow up pictures then.