It had been years since I visited Niagara Falls!  The Canadian border was closed due to COVID, so I drove to the American side.

I parked in the (free) lot at the Niagara Falls Discovery Center (Schoellkopf).  The brown building in the background is a refurbished elevator down to the bottom of the gorge that they've done since my last visit!  (It was closed for COVID.)		I walked from the Schoellkopf parking lot along the gorge to the falls.  A great view the whole way!
On the way to the falls, I walked under the Rainbow Bridge.  So weird to see it completely empty of traffic!		Also on  the way to the falls, a marker of where Hennepin would have stood more than 300 years ago.  WOW!
First view of the American Falls was spectacular!		So much mist!
A nice view of the Bridal Veil Falls, too!		It was fun to look down and see all the people at Cave of the Winds!
A nice view of the Horseshoe Falls, too!  It had been so long since I'd seen the from the American side.
After the Horseshoe Falls, I walked back to the Schoellkopf parking lot and drove to the new Gorge Stairs Trailhead, just south of the Whirlpool Bridge.  It connects to the Great Gorge Railway Trail (which starts from the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center) and allows you to walk under the Whirlpool Bridge!		The new stairs were beautifully constructed.
No trip to the Niagara Glen this year due to COVID, but I got real "white trail" ("Cliffside Path") vibes going down this trail.		The falls were still visible in the distance!
Half-way down, I got a great view of the rapids, the bridges, and the trail.  They've really done some great work on the trail since my last visit!  (In total, this was a quick, enjoyable 30-minute hike.)		Next stop was Whirlpool State Park.  The Niagara Whirlpool is probably my favorite place on earth, but with the border closed, I had to settle for a great view.  I walked to the Whirlpool stairs, but they looked muddy, so I paseed on them.
Next trail was my nemesis, Devil's Hole.		It's a long way down the stone staircase to water level, but it is mostly shaded.  (It took me 13 minutes to walk down.)
The trail was muddy in sections but easier to navigate than my last trip.  Still a lot of rock falls/slides.  Hard to imagine the Great Gorge Route trains travelling here!		I had hoped to make it to the Flowerpot/Rock of Ages/Giant Rock, but I was hiking alone, and this set of steps worried me, so I turned around here (30 minutes into my hike).
One more gratuitous shot of me with the Niagara River :)		Time to head back up!  It took me 19 minutes to get back up the staircase, not as bad as I had expected.
I ate lunch at The Silo, a waterfront restaurant in Lewiston, NY.		I got the fried fish sandwich to go and ate it on a bend along the waterfront.  So good!
The bridge abutments at the Artpark had a new sign since my last visit!		I walked a few minutes down the upper Artpark Gorge Trail at the Artpark and got a nice view of the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge.  (Wish I'd walked the lower River's Edge Trail, but at this point, I was pretty tired.)
View of Queenston Heights from the Artpark.  You can just see the Brock Monument above the trees!
My last planned stop for the day was Old Fort Niagara.  I got there too late to tour the fort, but I did get a photo with the lighthouse!		Unbelievably, I finally got to see the Toronto skyline from Fort Niagara State Park's beach!  (They always said we could see it from Niagara-on-the-Lake, but I never had.  So cool!)
My next stop was Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania!