The day after Niagara we went in search of a much less well known but equally intriguing natural wonder. On the outskirts of Buffalo, NY in Chestnut Ridge Park is a very unique waterfall. It's unusual because in a small crevice behind the waterfall, a flame around half a metre high constantly burns bright enough for anyone who makes the hike to the base of the falls to see in day or night.
The flame in Eternal Flame Falls exists because a couple of fissures in the rock persistently leak methane from deep in the ground. It stays lit because the gas is contained in the small chamber in the rock and isn't converted to carbon dioxide by any soil-based bacteria before escaping above ground. It is said to have first been lit by Native Americans thousands of years ago.
Without trying to ruin the magic too much, I have heard that the flame occasionally goes out, but it can be (and usually is) safely re-lit by anyone who passes by with a lighter.
The journey to the waterfall was an interesting experience. I saw that there were hiking trails through the forest that led to the right area, and wrongly assumed that they would be OK to cycle along. So off we went on our bikes, riding a whole 500 metres before we had to pick up our bikes and carry them over rocks and branches as we hiked upstream through a river.
Sharon was not amused, and the news that we couldn't chain the bikes up and continue on foot because I'd forgotten the bike lock went down about as well as a fish milkshake. It's nothing short of a medical miracle that all the ailments she claimed to be suffering from along the way had somehow healed completely by the time we reached the falls, including rashes from poison oak, Lyme disease from ticks and severe lacerations from her bike chain! I'm still not sure whether her comment that I would get trench-foot from wading up the river was meant as an observation or a curse....
Fortunately the payoff for all that work was being treated to a magnificent view of the flaming falls in all their glory and the stress of the journey was soon forgotten. We stayed a while and then found an easier way back out of the forest!
After all that work we were starving. Being in the Buffalo area, we felt compelled to try some authentic Buffalo wings from their birthplace. Holy crap, this city is competitive about their wings. There are three or four places that seem to be quoted constantly as having the "best wings in town". I'll just mention the one that we visited, which was Duff's in Orchard Park.
Duff's is basically a sports bar chain and they have about 4 locations in Buffalo. Their wings were indeed awesome, but to be honest Buffalo sauce tastes pretty much the same everywhere, so it's not hard to fry up some chicken and drench it in sauce. I went for their Wings N' Weck combo, the "Weck" being beef and gravy in a salty Kummelweck roll, which was amazing.
We decided to try and stay overnight in the car park on the perimeter of Chestnut Ridge Park where Eternal Flame Falls was located. We've been getting pretty brave with where we camp lately. I think our current criteria are simply that there are no signs saying "no overnight parking" and not too many bullet holes in the nearby trees and buildings. My logic is that even in America, it would probably be too much hassle for the police to arrange a tow truck big enough to remove us. Besides, I've tuned in to a couple of police scanners since we've been here and they seem to have bigger fish to fry!
That logic was shattered at 2am that night when we awoke to deafening noise and looked out of the window to see a massive tow truck parked right outside, and the local Sheriff looking straight at us. Everyone knows rational thought is impossible at 2am, whether you've just been woken up or are still up from the night before. So as far as my sleep-addled brain was concerned, this was not good.
It turns out that we'd parked next to the base the park staff worked out of, and the tow truck had been recovering one of their vehicles that had overturned on the main road, obviously overseen by the sheriff. Not to do things by halves, several other trucks soon arrived, plus fire trucks and emergency response vehicles. After half an hour of utter chaos, I think they got everything cleared up OK, no-one said anything to us and everyone disappeared as quickly as they arrived. Aaaand we're done with sleep for the night!
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