The Mist Zone

The spray on your face right now has done more damage than you'd expect.

Niagara's mist doesn't just drift. It soaks every surface around the Falls, day after day, and then freezes and thaws through the winter. Over decades, that constant wetting wears down concrete, rusts metal railings and loosens the mortar between stones. The viewing areas around the Falls need constant upkeep — not because of the weather, but because of the Falls themselves.

The same mist creates something unexpected on the cliffs. It keeps a small area so wet that mosses, ferns and other moisture-loving plants grow on rock that would otherwise be bare. On a hot summer day, the mist zone can feel several degrees cooler than the streets a few hundred metres away.

In winter it becomes theatrical. The mist keeps rising even in deep cold, coating everything in layer after layer of ice. Trees near the gorge become encased, their branches thickened to several times their normal size, and huge icicles hang from the gorge walls.

What you're feeling on your skin is Niagara doing what it has always done — slowly wearing down everything it touches.