Niagara Gorge, New York

[+Ground State]

I live in Niagara Falls, Ontario and cannot place a cache inside of one of the rocky caverns in the Niagara Gorge because permission must be granted by the Niagara Parks Commission, and they denied it on grounds that it was unsafe to the geocacher.

 

I believe that many cachers would be excited about the spelunking aspect! If I was to switch to the U.S. side of the gorge, can I place without permission? Or -- is there an equivalent governing body that must grant written permission to Groundspeak first as well?

[+briansnat]

The US side is part of Niagra Falls State Park and NY state parks require permission, actually a permit, for caches.

[+Walkin' Ed]

The Niagra Gorge is one of the NY State Parks where caches are not permitted at all. I believe its for security reasons.

[Mr.Yuck]

The Niagra Gorge is one of the NY State Parks where caches are not permitted at all. I believe its for security reasons.

 

As a local, yes, that's what I've heard. There are two reasons you see several caches down there. The older ones (2002 and 2003 placements) are "grandfathered". The local State Park approver guy is a Geocacher, and pretty lenient on that kind of stuff. I've heard of other State Park approver guys in other sections of the State who have requested permits for old placements that pre-date the State permit policy.

 

Secondly, the entire length of the gorge is not State Park property. You can see this just by looking at the Google map, and seeing that everything is not "green". I wouldn't put too much emphasis on this though. Personally, I have a Terracache (alternate Geocaching website) in the gorge about .20 miles south of the Lewiston-Queenston bridge, on what I'm sure is not State Park property, yet that would be a green area on the Google map.

 

Otherwise, this cache which says it's not on Parks property, couldn't have been published last year. Never met the owner(s), but I'd try contacting them for advice. Also, if you scroll way down to the published log on that cache, you'll see that Sapience Trek is the local reviewer. Between the two of them, I'm sure they could steer you in the right direction.

 

EDIT: Whoops, that's an MOC. And I see the OP is not a premium member. Either way, I'd contact the local reviewer, Sapience Trek, who published that cache in the gorge last year, which says it's not on State Parks property. And being a multi-cache, with several legs, this could be a messy situation. Especially if you go down there an place one, and run into proximity issues.

Edited July 23, 2009 by TheWhiteUrkel