Port Colborne, Ontario: Lock 8 Gateway Park

You can see the Welland Canal up close in Port Colborne, the entry point from Lake Erie for those headed East. In fact, one of the eight locks is located here. Seven of them are in the northern part, where the hills are. The eighth is used to make sure the water levels are correct.

There is a park surrounding the lock, as Governor General Ed Schreyer dropped in during 1979 to mark the 150th anniversary of the first Welland Canal. The park has some views of the lock area, as well as skating boarding, walking trail, etc.

We were lucky enough to catch a ship in the lock during our visit. This picture doesn't show how long the ship is, and it's REALLY big, but if you look carefully you can see how little room there is between ship and wall. It looked like a yard or so on either side. The captain of these ships has to be really good at driving, I guess.

Downtown Port Colborne borders the canal as well. There are a couple of blocks of cute little stores that are quite nice and quaint. It's too bad that there's isn't more of that economic development. But it's a small town, so be sure on a nice day to grab and ice cream cone and watch the world, and the ships, go by.

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