Exploring the Niagara Falls

Coming to the US and not visiting the mighty Niagara is out of question. A planned 3 day trip to the Niagara falls, Philadelphia and Washington DC wasn’t the best choice but the falls alone made it up to the rest two not-so-interesting days of the trip.

Day 1- We left New York at 7 in the morning. The bus took us for a beautiful ride through New Jersey to The Niagara Falls, stopping by at a place called Secret Caverns( which isn’t quite a mysterious place as the name suggests). We reached there at 6 in the evening and attended the half an hour Spirit of the Mist. A dance show portraying the history of the native American Indians with some interesting dance forms which you probably won’t understand, but it looks kinda nice with those colorful costumes. 

After the show, we went to watch the giant falls in the colors of illumination. Pink, blue, green, yellow!! Wow!! A water color palette (like literally). 

Since Niagara is at the border of Canada and New York state, you get to enjoy it from both the countries (a better view from Canada though).While I took some time drowning in those colors (disadvantage of being an artist), others were happily taking pictures. We then left for the hotel we were to stay in Maryland-Adam’s Mark. 

 

Day 2 -After a nice short nap of 7 hours we headed to the Old Niagara Fort. The 18^th century buildings built by the French were fascinating. With Lake Ontario to this end, the fortress looked beautiful (No wonder they fought so much for it). The firing musket demonstration was kinda fun. We got an hour or so to look around the fort. It was like a time machine travel to the past, imagining how the war happened, how 500 British troops crossed the river in 1813 and acquired the fort.

The Fort on Lake Ontario

Outside the fort

The Enterance

From inside the fort

Me and my sister all set to enter the falls (ignore the bald guy)

With brains quite filled with knowledge, we headed to the falls, this time to actually go inside it. The Maid of the Mist is what I am talking about. We got our tickets, wore the raincoat they gave us and waited in line to get to the boat which was gonna take us inside the enormous waterfall right behind us. Almost lost inside that raincoat, I was looking at the Canadian end, wondering about “The extra” that Canada offers. It takes you to a “Journey behind the falls” where a tunnel would lead you to portals where you could watch the thunderous Niagara right in front of you, being one-third of the way behind the massive sheet of water. Plus the observation deck is right beside the waterfall.  Yes we did miss out on that. But none of it mattered when we got on that boat.

Yes, that's the Maid of the Mist

Rainbow :D

 I had my camera ready to capture the most beautiful sight of the sun shining on the water and a rainbow just above our heads.

Like a little kid, I wanted to be right at the end of the boat, so I get to enjoy the waterfall a little more than the others. As we got close, I could feel the mist on my face and a lot more on my spectacles, blocking the god damn view (all coz I wanted to be right at the tip). I got a little busy cleaning my spectacles and putting my camera inside the cover and before I could realize we were already inside the falls. 

The intensity of the water flow and the mist was exuberant. Every drop was like dew falling from a leaf, so fresh. It was indeed a sprinkle like that of the first rain, just a little more surreal. I felt I was in a cloud of rain, all white and beautiful.

The next moment, through the slightest vision that I could get from my drenched spectacles, I saw the sun shining all over again. The boat took a turn, we saw the Great Niagara Falls from every possible angle and were back in no time. 

Stairs to the top

Happy Mum and Dad after the amazing experience

You could climb up hundreds of stairs or take the elevator to reach to the observation deck. We chose the elevator for we were running short of time. The observation deck gives a magnificent view of the falls. Took some more pictures there and headed out to fill our tummies. 

A while later, our bus headed to Philadelphia and I slept like a baby.

 

The Great Niagara Falls from the observation deck

The Heavenly Escape

 

 

Clingman's Dome

  Holy smoke!! The drive to Clingman’s dome isn’t that long from Gatlinburg, but it’s like entering into your dreams. The fog blinds the road, letting you discover those fallen colors of the fall every 50 meters. Everything about the Smokies was worth capturing. I could breathe the fog, hear the leaves, smell the water, feel the colors and see the cold. Nothing wrong with my senses, guess they just opened up a little. 

Red Indian dolls

                                                                       

The Great Smoky Mountains is a sub range of the Appalachian Mountains, around 200 miles from Atlanta, GA. We left at 11 in the morning and reached at 6pm. It was just a 3 hr drive but the car battery just died, without any sign. But yes, there were a lot of restaurants to hog and Fiat to fix it all. 2 hours and we were back on track.

The road to Gatlingburg was nothing less surprising than the place itself. Mid-way, we found local artisans exhibiting their work by the roadside. How could we not stop by to see something so fascinating. Beautifully displayed in the lawns, it was more like a Halloween special    edition. Everything was unique. These people have got some major talent.

A little ahead was a small market full of gift shops. Ah! Those Red Indian Dolls were charming. There were places to eat too, but we had to rush. So apart from the architecture, we could not really pay attention to a lot of things. 

We had the GPS on the entire time, but at one point of time we didn’t need it. A stream was taking us to our destination. And after that, I didn’t feel like believing the GPS. I loved where the stream was taking us. In no time, we were at our cottage-The Heavenly Escape! We had a huge cottage in the jungle of Pigeon Forge all by ourselves. We got some food, sat next to the fireplace and chit chatted the entire night. 

You'd find these streams all throughout the journey

That's our cottage

The next morning, we left in search of Chimney Top, which is a great hiking place. We landed at a place which was nowhere close. Excitedly, we started exploring it. For a while it was fun, but then we realized we were kinda lost. It had no trail, no direction and so we had to come back. Close to that place we tried hiking, there was Roaring Fork motor way. We decided we’d go there instead.

Posing like idiots at Roaring Fork

 It’s at this point we realized that there were thousands of people like us who come to the Smokies on weekends. Damn, wasn’t it jam-packed! We drove this wonderful drive way and stopped at a place where we could go into the stream flowing along, finally. Well it wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be. The rocks were slippery. For an hour we were just jumping on those rocks, trying to find the perfect spot for a picture. And we found one.

Halloween decorations everywhere

 After all the jumping around, we drove back to our cottage. In the evening we went to the most happening place in the mountains- Downtown Gatlinburg. For someone like me, who didn’t know what Halloween is like, this was such a retreat. Every nook and corner was decorated, even the cars that stopped by and gave chocolates to all the kids standing across the road.






We walked and walked, struck by the beauty of a place so unique. And in a store equally unique, I bought a jelly fish paper weight, which i'm totally obsessed with because it glows in the dark and is gorgeous. So there’s a lot like Ripleys aquarium, Believe it or not museum, Mirror maze, Haunted adventure, etc., etc. There are comedy and psychic shows too. The most memorable of all was the cowboy family pic we got clicked.
Something to remember and laugh upon my entire life.

The Cowboy family pic

 And it doesn’t end here. You’d be wondering what to do, because there is so so much. Not just at Town Square, but in the entire Smokies. May it be rafting or ziplining, skiing or golfing, hiking or anything you could think of. Wow!
Tired of walking, we headed back to the cottage. A relaxing time in the Jacuzzi at the end of the day, when its 0 degrees outside, is what defines a perfect end to a perfect day.

On the way to Clingman's dome

The next day morning, we packed and left for the highest point in the Smokies- The Clingman’s Dome. The drive, as I mentioned earlier was overwhelming. I moved out of the car to realize that I could not stand there even for a minute. Got frozen to death and started running to the peak. Kinda helps. Sneezing and running go along pretty well. On the top, we could see nothing. Dunno why I ran so much to see absolutely nothing. But the feel of the place was crazy. The cold and the fog made my brain freeze. And then when I couldn’t stand it longer, I ran back to the car. 

Jumping in the middle of road

Its difficult to make out if a car's coming in that fog (plus they don't even honk)

So this was the end of it. We were out of the Great Smoky Mountains. Back on the way to Atlanta, everyone going back shared the same feeling of leaving a place so fascinating.

The beautiful driveway back home