Niagara Falls
Whirlpool State Park
We had to drive back to NY to pick up our car that had broken down on our road trip a week earlier. We decided to take a quick stop on our way home to break up the trip.
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Whirlpool State Park is a beautiful, clean state park with picnic areas, decent washrooms, and changing areas for the baby. A plus is that Canadian phone service providers think you are in Canada at this location.
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We brought our BBQ and had a picnic and then took a stroll along a well-paved path, which provided us with a great view of the whirlpool. This path, the Niagara Gorge Rim Trail, is stroller-friendly and is a non-strenuous stroll. The path is quite long, but we did not walk the whole trail.
While we were viewing the whirlpool, we saw some people out on a rock in the river. When we found a staircase leading down into the gorge, we decided we really wanted to go out on to that rock as well and figured it wouldn't take that long.
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The stairs, as it turned out, was the beginning of the whirlpool trail. This is a much more strenuous hike. There was about 10 minutes of walking down uneven stairs, followed by over a mile of hiking. One way. In the really hot sun. Just a reminder - we had assumed this was a 20 minute there-and-back ordeal, so we did not wear proper shoes or even bring water. However, we were determined to get to get to the end.
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The trail is a pretty well-marked trail. The ground is relatively smooth, but a carrier is necessary (remember the 10 minutes of walking down switch-back staircases).
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Finally, at the end of the trail, you reach a large, flat rock formations which protrude into the river right before the whirlpool.
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We had told my mother we would just be 20 minutes...so she was waiting for us at the top. She zoomed in to capture this photo of the four of us (my father hiked down with us).
At the bottom of the trail, there was some water pooled in various locations on the rocks. There really was no way to get to the edge of the rocks without getting your feet a little wet.
However, the adrenilne rush you get from being so close to such insane rapids is unreal. The photo does not do it justice.
The way back was not as straightforward as we had hoped.
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The Whirlpool Trail takes a turn to get to the staircases that go back up to the Niagara Gorge Rim Trail. However, if you miss that turn, you end up on the Devil's Hole Trail, which is an additional couple miles. Guess what, we missed that turn. We hiked about a mile pass the turn before we bumped into a park ranger who let us know that we were no longer on the Whirlpool Trail. We thought the terrain didn't look familiar, but we figured we just weren't paying attention. Once we got back the place where the path turns towards the staircase, we realized that had we been paying attention, there was a sign indicating the path continued this way (the sign is not super clear, but it should have been obvious).
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We dragged dehydrated selves up the million-and-one stairs and as soon as we got to the top, we pounded the water.
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Thankfully, Adam seemed completely fine. Granted, I hadn't brought water for ourselves, but he had his bottle and shade from the carrier. He had slept the entire time, we almost forgot he was with us. Only the Adam-sized sweat stain on our chest from carrying him gave it away.
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Including the two-mile "detour", the whole hike took about 2 hours. It was a great hike and we will go again forsure, albeit with hiking shoes and water!
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