Eggertsville, NY Outdoor Activities

After spending hours on the faces of outdoor boulders and overhangs, the crew at Niagara Climbing Center brings back inspiration as a souvenir. With toughened fingers and memories of these natural rock formations, they return to their indoor facility to lay climbing routes on 6,000 square feet of vertical terrain. The gym's walls reach up to 20 feet above the ground and their features include bulges and slopes to help climbers prepare for real rocks or real trophy rooms of big-game rock hunters.

The aquatic-minded architects behind Fallsview Indoor Waterpark stocked their three-acre splash zone with family-friendly amusements that simulate the sun-soaked days of summer year-round. With both kids and adults in mind, the park's designers included two large, adults-only jacuzzis, where grownups can marinate in relaxation while the tots zip down 16 waterslides up to six storeys tall, or high enough to make Aquaman feel like a damp Godzilla. After the kids bodysurf in the wave pool or get caught in the deluge of the 1,000-gallon tipping bucket, families can refuel at Planet Hollywood Beach Club. Located on the site of the Falls Avenue Resort, the waterpark encourages families to retire to 20 acres of luxury for the night and return the next day to shake their fins beneath faux palm trees or traipse through Jungle Beach Playland, a dry indoor playground.

A Golden Griffin emblem presides over Canisius College Athletics’ 17 sports teams, which traverse grass, water, and hard court in search of victory. As part of the NCAA Division I’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), Canisius’s athletes face off against other East Coast schools including Marist College, Niagara University, and Loyola University Maryland. From the stands, a sea of blue and gold cheers on the men’s basketball, hockey, and lacrosse teams, the women’s soccer, softball, and volleyball teams, and the adjunct professors’ annual soapbox derby.

The dedicated teaching professionals at Village Glen Tennis Club oversee a wide variety of programs for adults and juniors of all skill levels, earning the club recognition as a Top 50 Tennis Welcome Center of 2007 from the U.S. Tennis Association. This honor followed on the heels of a major renovation of the club’s facilities in 2006 by a new management team, who modernized the six hard and eight clay courts and brought in new nets instead of pealing white picket fences. Today, players can take up the game through a series of classes that help them progress alongside players with similar abilities or hone specific strokes through drills designed to isolate and improve their technique. Players excited to show off a shiny new forehand or a pitch-perfect grunt can do so through the club’s adult leagues or socials.

Named one of America’s top 100 driving ranges by Golf Range Magazine in 2011, Broadway Driving Range & Miniature Golf invites golfers to launch towering drives under covered hitting bays toward a target field that stretches more than 350 yards. Golfers who favor a natural feel can hack through a bucket of balls at the range’s all-grass hitting areas; synthetic hitting mats cater to refined sand wedges that consider divots uncouth. Laid-back clubbers can practice pendulous putts at the complex’s miniature-golf course, where players circle around a barn built in 1932 through a farm-themed circuit of 18 miniature fairways featuring antique farm tools. Broadway Driving Range can cool down clients with soft-serve custard from Green Acres Ice Cream.

Despite spending most of their 125-plus-year history as a minor-league organization, the Bisons began play as a major-league club from 1879–85. All told, nearly 3,000 players and managers have donned the Bisons uniform, including 20 who have been immortalized in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Currently, the Bisons compete every summer for an International League title, as well as the Thruway Cup—a regional- and bragging rights–based trophy chased by the Bisons, the Rochester Red Wings, and the Syracuse Chiefs. The Bisons have done half of their competing since 1988 at Coca-Cola Field, which boasts the largest video board in the minors and an infield kept moist by hoses that spray water and not soda as the field’s name would suggest.