Just wondering if someone can explain what is the Niagara Escarpment, how far does it run, and does it include the hill known as Clifton Hill in Niagara, Ont? - Jinx
In summary it is a massive limestone escarpment running from Lake Huron to Niagara Falls. It’s a UN designated Biosphere, and since Clifton Hill is right in Niagra chance are you’ll see the escarpment when you look at the falls. 
Yes, I googled, but I don’t get it. Isn’t an escarpment a wall, but it appears it is not the Niagara River’s gorge. If it does include Clifton Hill, then it appears to me to be nothing more than a steep hill rising above the Niagara River’s gorge.
We’ve just came back from there (4th trip), but one book even describes LaSalle’s exploration of the area and the area known as “crawl on all fours” by the Seneca Indians refers to three peaks comprising the escarpment near Lake Ontario, I presume from the description…and not near the Falls as IMAX Niagara would lead you to believe.
Perhaps, there are better places where the escarpment is more obvious? Perhaps, at Niagara Falls, it is lost to the view and surroundings? - Jinx 
Actually, the Falls are the result of the Niagara River eating away at the Escarpment for a few years and the actual Escarpment is several miles down river (north) of the Falls, just south of Lewiston, NY and a bit east of St. Davids, ON. Since Clifton Hill is in Niagara City, it is not part of the Escarpment and the only way that it would “overlook” the Escarpment would be to consider the entire course of the Niagara Gorge from the Escarpment back to the Falls as a “peninsula” or “bay” of the Escarpment. (You are free to do so, of course.)
(The Escarpment also continues across the Canada/U.S. border, extending into upstate New York for a ways past Rochester. (At Lockport, it caused the old Erie Canal to have five adjacent/successive locks to overcome the change in altitude.)
Its the leading edge of a big (I mean really big) piece of rock. The falls fall over it into Lake Ontario. Check here
If you want to see the Escarpment, drive up the QEW toward Hamilton. As soon as you are past the walls and houses in Niagara Falls (or, at least, once you’re past St. Catherines), you begin to see it rise up on the south (although it feels like the west since you’re going “north” to Hamilton and Toronto). It parallels the QEW for most of the trip to Hamilton. (I don’t remember whether it is obvious when you go down the Escarpment on the QEW. One thing to remember is that the land adjacent to it rises and falls with erosion and deposition, so sometimes it stands out as a towering wall, and sometimes it appears to be little more than a slight hill in the distance.
If you want to experience the Niagara Escarpment hike the Bruce trail, 773 km long which follows the escarpment.
tomndebb’s description is exactly how I remember it when I lived in it’s shadow for the first 30 years of my life.(BTW, citizens of St Catharines are sensitive to foreigners who continually mispell the name)
Some interesting points.
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I’ve always noticed that in the winter there seemed to be a lot more snow above the escarpment than below.
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From my high school geography I learned that as a result of a railroad constructed with an elevated ballast running below and parallel to the escarpment and the QEW highway,(St Catharines to Hamilton) many many years ago, the land use of the area between the escarpment and the railroad changed forever. Apparently cold air that would descend down the escarpment would be trapped by the elevated railroad, resulting in much longer frost periods than before. IIRC whereas fruit trees predominate north of the railroad, grapes predominate south of the railroad.
I lived on it!
No, it’s not related to Clifton Hill. Clifton Hill is more or less a semi-steep hill with lots of stores on it.
The Escarpment is a 300+ foot ‘mountain’ that traces the ‘golden horseshoe’ (the horseshoe shaped area at the foot of Lake Ontario).
The escarpment cuts right thru several cities. These cities have development on it and on the flatland below it. Locally, the upper city is called “the mountain”. It’s also home to many nice waterfalls and wildlife.
Here’s some good links:
This is a picture looking from the escarpment down over the lower city. That road running in front is one of many that takes you from the lower city to the upper and back.
http://www.raven1.net/hike36.jpg]This is a view from the escarpment again but this time looking down on the downtown core.
This is the best pic I could find of the actual facade of the mountain. It’s the big cliff behind the apartment building.
This is a satellite photo of the golden horseshoe area. That dark red ‘vein’ that runs along the bottom is the escarpment edge. The green parts are the city lights of the upper & lower city in Hamilton.
The best way to experience the escarpment without getting out of your car (I know about hiking the Bruce Trail) is to drive Hwy 403 from Burlington to Mohawk Rd. in Hamilton. Then turn around and check the view going downhill. Particularly nice with autumn colours.
BTW, in Portugese, “escarpado” means steep.
Here are a couple of geologic maps (with write-ups) that both show the extent of the escarpment and explain its origin and the concept of “differential erosion”:
Heh! I’m on the Niagara Escarpment right now! I work at Niagara University (home of the Purple Eagles), and perched at the northern end of the American side of the Escarpment.
Good things about working on the Niagara Escarpment:
- You can see across to Canada.
- Every day, you can see The Falls (or at least the mist rising from it).
Bad things about working on the Niagara Escarpment:
- It is windy.
- It is cold in the winter.
- Good thing you didn’t ask this in the winter, I would have frozen to death.
Anyway…I think there’s bit of confusion here. As *tomndebb correctly points out, the Escarpment proper is the approximately six-mile long wall on both sides of the Niagara River, carved by The Falls as they have inched back since the Ice Age.
It’s about 100 feet high. The American north end is about a mile north of Niagara Uni, and the Canadian end is a mile south of Queenston. The best viewing points (IMHO) of the escarpment are here at the New York State Power Vista (500 yards north of here) and from various points on the Niagara Parkway (Canadian side). Well worth a visit, Dopers!
Now you’ve got me wanting to hike the Bruce Trail.
BruceWell Canadians and the State of Wisconsin disagree. The escarpment actually continues north beyond the Bruce Peninsula, traversing the Manitoulin Islands in Georgian Bay. Beyond this point, I can’t recall it’s exact course, but it continues on into and through Wisconsin.
Feh. Cheese-heads trying to steal our thunder, that is.
All moaning aside, it does seem a bit rich to identify a geological formation as “the Niagara Escarpment” when it was neither created by the Niagara River nor within shouting distance of anything else called “Niagara.” Couldn’t they have called it, say, “the Green Bay Escarpment”?
Oh good, then they’d turn it around and call it Paker Park, Farve Falls, Appleton Ascension or Tailgate trail. Lets just keep it this way.