Niagara Falls Part II

Here is the last post from my road trip around the country so I'll be back to my regularly scheduled Maine photography soon hehe.

I went back to Niagara to see it in the day and also from the Canadian side this time.

Here's a picture while still in the US, as well as one crossing over the Rainbow Bridge.





It took us at least an hour to get through customs, and they thought I was a criminal. I was called up 3 times until finally they asked for my social security number (???) and then realized they were looking at someone else with my name. They even asked if I worked for a roofing company, AND asked where I was on April 22nd, 2009, or something like this. I gave them my passport and drivers license..you think they'd have SOME clue who I was. So yeah, I was a little upset with the border crossing this time. Those employees should be ashamed of themselves for wasting vacationers precious time. Took an hour to get in and I had a dinner date with my aunt, so I had only an hour (rushed one too) to spend while actually there. We rushed around and took pictures. It was nice, but nothing really grabbed me.





Nothing grabbed me until THIS, that is.





This put me in a better mood. The rainbow only lasted a few moments so I had to rush to even get this shot. Feeling lucky, we continued towards the Horseshoe Falls section, where I was astounded once again. The water falling into a void, or so it seemed, created a vortex that drew me in.





Pictures of course do not do it justice, so I'll attempt to see if I have good enough video footage of it to post soon.

And then my senses were awakened yet again when one of the friends I was with let me try on his Eagle Eyes. These sunglasses..seriously...I felt like I was in another dimension.





And then we headed back to "the other side".





I must say that it does suck to have such a horrible border crossing adventure. Not only does it bring you down and steal your time, but it also almost leaves a negative feeling about the country you've visited. I was happy to return to the United States where I could be myself and feel safe. Way to make me feel at home Canada. On another note, I'm sure that Canadians coming into the United States get it just as bad. Why can't we be friends again? hehe

Niagara Falls New York

This will be an easy post since I only went to photograph one thing, Niagara Falls.

I had planned on going tomorrow, but my cousin and I were talking about it, and she said it was lit up at night and was better seen that way. I thought, what the heck, and drove from just outside of Rochester back to the Buffalo area to get some pictures of the lights. I was not disappointed and would highly recommend going at night to anyone and everyone.

Grafton Notch State Park & Evans Notch

On Sunday the 8th, I decided to head up a little north where the foliage was good. I was thinking about going to Rangeley, but decided to stop when I noticed the colors were fading, and I didn't want to continue up too much further. I decided to stop by Grafton Notch though, since I'd never been. I went to Moose Cave, but wasn't too impressed. Then I stopped by a waterfall called "Mother Walker Falls". Most people pass this by because there isn't much of a view to see it. In order to get a good view, you have to cross a stream by stepping over some rocks. Not something that many people dare to do, or know to do for that matter. I was looking around trying to figure out where the trail was, and couldn't find it. Then I noticed some people on the other side of the stream, and they came over on rocks, so I thought, why not? I'm glad I did, it was very peaceful over there, and not many tourists!



On my way out, I stopped by "Screw Auger Falls". I took a few pictures of the foliage because some of the trees were pretty bright. Then I went in to take a look at the Falls. I couldn't get a good angle, so I decided to do some rock climbing. In the second picture you'll see where I ended up. The waterfall was very well protected, and unless I wanted to get wet (not with all those tourists around to watch haha), I decided I'd better not bother. I took a picture looking in toward the waterfall though. The 3rd picture is a more top down view of the falls. The picture didn't come out well at all, but I thought I'd share what the actual falls looked like since I'm writing about it. The next picture is a view heading to the falls from the top, and the very last picture is leaving Grafton Notch State Park.



Next I decided to head down to Evans Notch since it wasn't too much out of my way, and I could use it to loop around back to Portland anyway. It was gorgeous at Evans Notch, most likely peak foliage.