Tymon Burghy

There is a question that has been asked regarding water, and that question is “Is water wet?” Well unfortunately I can neither confirm nor deny and I will leave that up to you to decide. I will, however, say that water makes things wet. Very wet. I can, however, answer the question of what the backside of water looks like.

Many of you know that I’m not one for “touristy” things, but yet here we are. This journey starts off back at my home in Ohio. With the end of the summer quickly approaching, I stood on the porch one afternoon talking with my parents. As a family, we typically take a trip each summer somewhere fun. The previous few years we had gone to a beach along the US East Coast, twice to the Outer Banks, and once to Panama City Beach. I was itching to go somewhere else. I recommended a quick trip to Niagara Falls, which was at first shot down. But I am not one to let an idea die like that. I did some travel research and a few days later presented more information for the trip. The drive would be about eight hours. I calculated a fuel estimate and found a small selection of hotels in the area and put together a rough cost and time estimate. This would be my family’s first time out of the country together and my sister and mom’s first time using their passports (and being outside of the US).

My parents talked it over and decided that it would be a fun get away for a weekend before we all went back to work and school respectively. We booked a hotel and blocked out the days in our schedules. And made plans.

The day arrived and we packed our bags into my mom’s Jeep. Early in the morning, we departed, and headed west. Before long, we were headed up through the Northern US, making our way to Buffalo New York and across the border into Canada. We arrived at Niagara Falls in the early evening, checked into a hotel, and decided to take a stroll around the Canadian side of the falls. After dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, one of my family’s favourite vacation eateries, we made our way over towards the falls and stood along a large fence watching the water spill over. Below, the Maid of the Mist made the journey towards the swell of the falls. The next day we would explore the falls deeper, not on the Maid, but going behind the falls.

The next day came and we made our way back out to the falls. We walked to the visitor’s centre and got in line for our tour. Instead of going out on a boat or a boardwalk, we would be venturing behind the falls, through a series of tunnels carved out for the experience called “Journey Behind the Falls” that allows visitors to see the falls from the backside. We walked through some corridors and came to an outcropping standing just past the falls (which is where the photo was taken). This is the observation platform, which allows visitors to get up close and personal with the falls. We were given rain ponchos before our journey, ponchos, that once we were out on the observation deck came in very handy. We weren’t being drenched by water, but the mist coming from the falls made its presence known in large droplets that collected on the ponchos. Don’t get me wrong, the ponchos aren’t absolutely necessary, you aren’t being absolutely dumped on, but it does make it so that you don’t come out damp.

Moving on from the observation deck, you snake your way through the network of tunnels to one of the portholes that opens up to the falling torrent. Standing in line, you get the faint whiff of freshwater, not the chloriney smell from pools or some fountains, but the smell of wet moss and fresh rain. In that damp tunnel, the smell was refreshing, contrasting the smell of moist dirt and dark places, the water ushered in the feeling of rejuvenation and the hope for excitement. After the smell, you heard the water. Beating against the wall that it fell down. Lapping against the floor through the open space carved out. Imagine the sound of pouring rain, pushed around by wind coming off the side of a gutter-less building. The wind pushing the wall of water around every few seconds creating an ebb and flow of intensity. This was the same way, but on a larger scale. You could hear the falls the whole time under the tunnels that it became like a grey noise in the background, but as I approached the tunnel opening into the falls, it became distinct and prominent. The final sense that the falls encapsulated was sight. As I approached the end of the tunnel, the water finally came into view. A curtain of water, draped over the opening, seemingly unmoving but for the billowing of the water spilling into the tunnel. Photos don’t do it justice, for photos are just a single moment in time. The photos I took pale in comparison, for they don’t show the way the water rippled as hundreds of thousands of gallons poured over the falls each second. A fence stood about five meters from the end of the tunnel, separating visitors from the falls. Water was channelled through small irrigation grooves in the tunnel along the walls to avoid soaking the feet of those in line. People lined up to get photos by the fence with the backside of the falls behind them. Some threw coins into the surge of water in the tunnel from the falls. Of course we took a photo, and then we moved on to allow others to get a photo with the backside of the water.

We stuck around Niagara for another day after our Behind the Falls experience, exploring local cuisine, from poutine to ketchup-flavoured Lays crisps. For my first time in Canada, I greatly enjoyed my time there, but it left me hungry to journey further into Canada. Watch out Quebec, I’m coming.