Niagara Falls – from Akron, NY

Looking northeast down the Niagara River toward Rainbow Bridge, American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls (Bridal being the smaller of the two falls toward the front)

Our stay in Akron, near Buffalo, was simply chosen to provide fairly convenient access to Niagara Falls in what we thought was a nice place. While Sleepy Hollow Camp appeared fairly nice on the internet, it is more campground and seasonal camper than RV park. The internet was non-functional unless you had Windows 95, and the lake was more pond than lake. While it sported a brand new pool, the site was water and electric only with no sewer. As a full-timer, I’ll take a sewer connection over a crowded pool anytime of the week. Given it didn’t have laundry facilities, and we didn’t have a sewer connection, we could only keep accumulating dirty clothes until we landed at the next place. As such, we now have a heap of laundry to do at the next campground, and the data plans of our hotspots and phones are running low. Needless to say, I don’t recommend Sleepy Hollow for full-timers.

Horseshoe Falls as seen from the Canadian side. Approximately 681,7500 gallons of water are dumped over Horseshoe Falls each second!

The American Falls and Rainbow Bridge as well as the observation deck in the foreground (it appears nearly level with Rainbow Bridge, which is a bit confusing to the eye, as Rainbow Bridge is much further back from it in reality)

Water flowing down from Bridal Veil Falls

More water flowing down from Bridal Veil Falls

Birthday girl with her friend Brooke while at Cave of the Winds

The object with Cave of the Winds is to put your back toward Bridal Veil Falls while standing at the back of the platform while letting the water hit you at 70 mph. I did it and it was like getting sprayed with a fire hose

In planning our stay, we orchestrated Elle’s 13^th birthday and a joint trip to Niagara Falls. I’d last been there in 1969 at age 14, so the timing was a bit ironic. Along with Elle came Jennifer and Elle’s friend, Brooke. Jenni rented a cabin just behind our RV and upon seeing it for the first time, Elle immediately remarked that she was sleeping in the RV. To say the cabin was a bit worn is like saying Michael Jordon’s shoes are a bit large.

Maid of the Mist or one of its sisterships as it travels toward Horseshoe Falls. The Canadian side is on the right and American Falls is on the left

Another shot of Maid of the Mist or one its sisterships. Those boats were a lot smaller than that when I went there in 1969 and didn’t have the upper deck

Maid of the Mist as it approaches Horseshoe Falls as seen from the Canadian side. I remember my dad calling out BS when he noticed the skipper rocking the wheel from side to side to create an effect

There is more to Niagara Falls than just the falls. Here’s a shot taken alongside the Niagara River

Another one of the many rapids on the river

Here, folks disembark from Maid of the Mist with their raincoats on. They look like little blue ants as seen from the observation deck

This is the Canadian visitor center which also is the entry point for the Behind the Falls tour as well as the Elements of the Falls restaurant

I took this shot as we rode down the incline tram toward the restaurant

As mentioned, the light show is really just them changing the color of the falls. I don’t imagine a laser show of any sorts would work all that well on moving water

We had a fun time visiting Niagara Falls and went to the U.S. side one day and the Canadian side the next, staying at the Sheraton adjacent to The Falls one evening. We celebrated Elle’s birthday dinner at Elements by the Falls, which overlooks Horseshoe Falls and the nightly light show (really, it’s just Horseshoe Falls under four different color lights and not some sort of laser show). While the restaurant was nice enough, it was more about the time spent there and the views, and much less about the food.

Sleepy Hollow campground was sort of a mixed bag. I think it is great for kids and weekenders, but it sort of sucked not having a sewer connection and high speed internet for a week as our laundry started to mount while our data plans drained away

They really make an attempt at keeping the campground looking good

I’m always amused to watch people want to pet stinky farm animals while strolling in their waste

The lake at Sleepy Hollow was more pond than it was lake. There was a lot of growth in it, but they keep it away from the swimming area by using a system similar to rounding up oil spills

Alayne takes lots of nice flower pictures and I have no clue what the flowers are

Our campsite wasn’t half bad, and being on a corner we had no neighbors out our front door

Following nine days in which we depleted our data plans and let the laundry stack up to the ceiling, we were good and ready to leave Sleepy Hollow. Besides getting the laundry done, I look forward to being able to take a shower for longer than 2 minutes.