'Just get soaked': Park improvements make Niagara Falls, New York, even more inviting

There’s one thing that’s puzzling, standing here under an unfathomably mighty fall of water at Niagara Falls, New York.

How on earth did Marilyn Monroe navigate the slippy steps and rocks as she runs, chased by a murderous Joseph Cotton in the 1953 thriller, “Niagara”?

Playing a duplicitous cheating wife, Monroe wears a super-tight skirt and stiletto heels, and looks utterly gorgeous, make up and hair perfect.  Not to get too personal, but here I am at the Cave of the Winds, a few feet from the very spot where Monroe’s terrified character sought to escape, and I am completely bedraggled, drenched to the skin, the wettest I’ve ever been in my life. I never knew one could be this soaked. It’s beyond soaked … You can’t help but laugh. What an experience, just letting that force of nature that erupts here take over. No point in fighting, no point in running away. Just get soaked.

It was indeed the second time that day that a good soaking ensued. The first was while riding the iconic Maid of the Mist boat under the Horseshoe Falls — another truly magnificent experience, though one that is so noisy due to the sound of the water crashing down. The new pollution cutting electric boats help alleviate engine noise, though.

However, while standing at the front of the boat may give the most powerful experience of the falls full force, it also puts one in line for a good drenching.

Now, plastic ponchos are offered for both experiences, which are separate and accessed at different locations. But in an ongoing effort to cut personal plastic use, I declined. Incredibly, people discard the blue and yellow ponchos without a care, tucking them into rocks or just throwing them down — and where are they going to go but the river?

The founding of Niagara Falls State Park in 1885, the nation’s first state park, was in fact a result of rampant and utterly repugnant disregard for the planet. Acrid smoke and toxic chemicals filled the air and the water, as industrial pollution from businesses set up along the gorge to harness and use its power ran unchecked. The falls and the Niagara River had no protection until everyday people began protesting and calling for an end to the commercial madness.

This year, a new Welcome Center is scheduled to open (at time of writing, that was to be around Memorial Day), providing an official new gateway to the Niagara River Corridor, and bound to be a central attraction in itself, what with its interpretive museum space and exhibits highlighting a diversity of topics including natural, industrial and Indigenous American history. Before European occupancy, this region was home to the Iroquois Confederacy of six nations, the largest of which was the Seneca Nation.

More importantly for Niagara Falls, last year the park itself was expanded by adding 140 acres of recreational space, which represents the largest expansion of the park since its creation in 1885. The new Gorgeview area adds more spectacular viewing points and trail expansion includes a bike and nature path stretching from the Rainbow Bridge to Findlay Drive, and connecting to recreational trails at other state parks including Whirlpool State Park and Devil's Hole State Park.

Ten years in the making, this Niagara Falls State Park landscape revitalization plan also renovated the park's major viewing areas including Luna Island, Prospect Point, Lower Grove, Three Sisters Islands, North Shoreline Trail, Luna Bridge, and Terrapin Point with new walkways around rethought, more natural landscaping, and more seating for stopping and sitting.

It is hard to imagine that what is now largely a free for all to see was once fenced off and privately controlled, and heavily polluted. Land owners built tall fences around the edge of the falls, preventing viewing. Visitors had to pay to spy through a peephole in the fence! The natural and cultural history of Niagara Falls, including photos of those preposterous peepholes, is on display at the Cave of the Winds pavilion, which opened in 2017. It also shows the extent of the degradation by rampant, unregulated industrial interests, something that was thankfully stemmed when Frederick Law Olmsted, a busy in demand landscape designer who also designed Central Park, spurred the Free Niagara movement after he visited in 1869.

The complaints that there’s more to do on the Canadian side of the bi-national falls than the US side misses a big and beautiful point: the New York side, for all its vintage touristy schtick, and yes, lack of certain “things to do,” learned from the mistakes of its commercial past and has since played up the nature side, and not developed with massive entertainment towers. A walk or drive over the Rainbow Bridge over the Niagara River gorge, which connects the cities of Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario gives easy access to commercial amusements.

It’s been a long journey back from the abyss of commercial destruction in Niagara, NY. Since the 1980s, the steady removal of portions of the Niagara Scenic Parkway downtown increased access to the fabulous Niagara Gorge and by 2020 the city and its waterfront were united for the first time in a generation.

The further you walk up the Niagara Gorge, the more the city dissolves and the gentle landscaping becomes less manicured, and more natural. A free trolley regularly ferries folks to and from town should the walking become too much.

By the Discovery Center, the trail is just lightly tended and as this is summertime, there are lots of flowers: Lacey baby’s bonnet, brilliant yellow golden rod, and pretty pink echinacea are graced with black and yellow banded butterflies — a rare sight now. Farther along, trees in full leaf shade the rougher pathway and the air is cooler. A massive hawk glides above, elegantly hunting. Far below, the river’s flow is more lazy and its color is almost an emerald green at this time of year, due to the amount of vegetation washed into it at the falls.

It’s a far cry from when Nikola Tesla developed a system of alternating current (AC) and transmitted power from Niagara Falls to Buffalo in 1895. In 1905, construction began on the Schoellkopf Power Station and upon completion in 1924 it was the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. In 1956, workers noticed water seeping into the plant from the back wall. By mid-afternoon, water leaking from the rear wall caused a catastrophic collapse, amazingly killing only one worker, but sending much of the plant tumbling into the river. In 2013, the original elevator shaft was restored and visitors may take a grim ride down to river level, where the off duty Maid of the Mist tour boats are stored.

The Maid of the Mist is older than the park, dating to 1846, and it truly is a wonderful way to experience the falls (open seasonally mid-April through early November; hours vary. maidofthemist.com). Nearby, the park’s Observation Tower’s Crow’s Nest provides an elevated platform. Goat Island has a myriad of attractions, including Bridal Veil Falls and American Falls, and the undoubtedly spectacular Cave of the Winds. For more information: niagarafallsstatepark.com

Downtown

Niagara New York’s downtown area has a vintage feel, like nothing much has changed since Marilyn stayed in room 801 at the General Brock Hotel on Falls Avenue in 1952 while she was filming her first starring role. The hotel is now the Doubletree by Hilton Niagara Falls New York (summer rates from $222 per night. hilton.com)

As far as modern towers go, the most prominent on the New York side is Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino (summer rates from $150 per night, senecaniagaracasino.com), adjacent to the Sheraton Niagara Falls (summer rates from $182 per night, marriott.com) complex that includes a Rainforest Café, always a fun spot for children of all ages.

Among the many familiar big box chain hotels, one can’t help but notice the magnificent, but shuttered Hotel Niagara, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 and is rumored to be for renovation. Its neighbor, The Giacomo on First Street is a recent preservation success story. Its now a boutique hotel with lavishly decorated guest rooms (many with giant Whirlpool tubs) that recall its Art Deco roots. It was built in 1929 as the United Office Building and many exotic features are beautifully preserved (summer rates from $352 per night, thegiacomo.com).

The Giacomo lobby bar, with its Mayan Revival fireplace, is a must for drinks and appetizers. Recline on velvet seats and take in its Roaring Twenties vibe. For dining, the seasonal Top of the Falls Restaurant on Goat Island is a unique experience right in Niagara Falls State Park’s city end. 100 years ago, the Red Coach Inn restaurant and lounge opened in an unusual English styled mock Tudor building, and its still going strong. With rock and roll nostalgia as a backdrop, the Hard Rock Cafe on Prospect Street provides a familiar bolthole, yet it’s always surprising what unique memorabilia from A-list music icons hang on its walls.

Every evening, Niagara Falls puts on a unique light show lighting the falls in a neon rainbow and then, though it has become controversial because of noise disturbing animal habitat and adding air pollution, there are nightly fireworks. Travelers with dogs and humans terrified by fireworks should plan ahead and take necessary action. The lighting begins at 8:30 p.m. and fireworks follow at around 10 p.m., closing each day in Niagara Falls with a fanfare that pales in comparison to that put on by Mother Nature, 24/7.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Open for all to see: Niagara Falls USA crafts a new greener experience