Niagara Falls, NY Attractions

Maid of the Mist passes directly in front of the falls and enters the Horseshoe Basin.

Bedore tours include sightseeing in front of the various falls. Guides are available to answer any questions.

The Castellani Art Museum features a permanent collection that includes contemporary and 20th century artwork as well as folk art that date back to the 1850's. Paintings, drawings, photographs and pre-Columbian ceramics are on display.

The Niagara Aerospace Museum is dedicated to Western New Yorkers who contributed to the world's aviation and space flight endeavors. Buffalo was America's center of aviation from 1917 to 1940.

The Niagara Falls Aquarium, offers a variety of marine animals, including sea lions, penguins and otters; natural world of the Great Lakes and North Atlantic.

Located in the Niagara Reservation State Park visitor center, the theater presents a film regarding the History of Niagara.

The Niagara Reservation State Park is New York's oldest state park, opened in 1885, composed of an area on main land, and five islands on the Niagara River. The park offers over 400 acres with nature and bike trails, picnic facilities, and fishing opportunities.

Frontier life in Niagara is displayed at the Niagara's Wax Museum of History as well as daredevil's barrels, the making of electrical power, street scenes of the Niagara Falls of yesteryear, and Indian villages using life-size figures.

Narrated van tours are offered of Niagara Falls, both in New York and Ontario both during the day and at night. Maid of the Mist rides are included.

Rainbow Tours has 4 hour boat and bus tours that visit the American and Canadian sides of the falls as well as other stops along the way.

The Robert Moses Parkway runs downstream through Whirlpool State Park and then along the Lower Rapids to Devil's Hole State Park. Ahead is a view of the massive Robert Moses hydroelectric station. Then comes the campus of the old Niagara University, with the Castellani Art Museum (art of the 18th-20th centuries). The road continues to the Robert Moses State Power Plant then on through the Niagara Escarpment, a fertile fruit growing area, to where the Niagra River flows into Lake Ontario north of Youngstown.

North-east of the Rainbow Bridge is the Schoellkopf Geological Museum, which traces 500 million years of geological history in the Niagara area. From the museum the Upper Gorge Nature Trail leads to Whirlpool Rapids State Park.

The parish of St Mary of the Cataract began in 1836 and is the oldest Catholic Church in Niagara Falls. The sacristy was built in 1813 and the church in 1847. The tower's oldest bell was installed in 1873.

Three mi below the American Falls the river changes course again, forming the Whirlpool in a great cauldron originally created by tectonic movements and turning north-east over the Lower Rapids towards Lake Ontario.