“Come on, come on,” urged the crowd of thousands gathered at Niagara Falls State Park Monday waiting to catch a glimpse of the sun eclipsed by the moon.
With necks craned to the sky and safety glasses pressed to their eyes, visitors from far and wide cheered as the clouds parted and they got a peek of the crescent-shaped sun.
Though clouds covered the eclipse during the nearly four minutes of totality, viewers got to see the sliver of sun almost totally blocked by the moon right before and after totality. They witnessed as the sky plunged into darkness, then lit back up as the moon continued on it’s path.
“It was more than we could have wished for,” said Alison Land, who was visiting from New York City as part of a road trip through upstate New York. “I actually think it was better with the clouds.”
It was Land’s first time seeing a total solar eclipse and first time visiting Niagara Falls.
Like many of the tourists, she took a ride on the Maid of the Mist and explored different parts the the state park, which stretches along the upper Niagara River rapids to the Horseshoe Falls past the American Falls on the U.S. side in New York.
But seeing the eclipse with Niagara Falls as the backdrop was the highlight.
“A natural wonder like Niagara Falls, a natural wonder like an eclipse happening at the same time and bringing all these people together is a real opportunity for people to just commune and be together,” Land said.
Visitors started arriving at the park early Monday morning to grab prime eclipse-viewing spots as close to the waterfalls as they could. They were…
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