We debated a long time about doing this boat tour.  Because everything in the town is made for tourists to pour their money into, I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it.  When we finally made the decision to do it, it turned out that because we are here off season we got a great deal on tickets (2 kids free and 2 kids half price).  Or maybe they just felt bad for us because it was a cold rainy day. 

I would say that the boat probably holds at least 60.  There were 16 passengers on the boat and we were 6 of them.  During most of the ride up the dells a guide gives lots of information on the dells and points out interesting rock formations that look like things like Indian heads and alligators.  It was very informative and it felt much like a private tour.

The beginning of the tour:

 

Boat Stop #1- Witches Gulch

I was very excited to see this and it did not disappoint.  I couldn’t take enough pictures to capture the magnificent beauty of this gulch.  Because it was so dreary and rainy, it did have a rather eerie feeling.

 

Boat Stop #2- Stand Rock

We were told that Stand Rock is known for the famous dog jump.  Not famous enough that I had heard of it.  But indeed a dog does jump the distance of 5 1/2 feet between these rocks, except when it is raining.  No dog jump for us.

What an interesting place?  The best way I can describe it is to think of Las Vegas and Orlando, FL colliding… that is the town of Wisconsin Dells, on a much smaller scale.

It is the “Water Park Capital of the World”.  How it got this title?  According to a local, here is the story (although Wikipedia tells a different version).

It all started with 2 brothers opening a water park in 1979, Noah’s Ark, with the money they made from a game they had patented and sold.  Their goal was to bring a little excitement to a poor poor town.  The park had a handful of water slides.  They set the park a distance back from the main road to preserve the appearance of the beautiful farm land when driving the main road.  The brothers sold the park many years later for $44 million. Noah’s Ark is now the biggest water park in the world.  Also, the street it is located on is jammed packed full of other gaudy water parks, amusement parks, hotels, big signs, and bright lights.  The women I spoke with didn’t seem too bothered by this entertainment boom.  She mentioned that it brought a lot of jobs to a very depressed town.  An interesting perspective.

If you ever decide to come here with kids plan to sink hundreds of dollars on “stuff”.  We managed to get away with the cost of a boat tour because we spent most of our time in state parks away from the many attractions… not to say that my kids didn’t ask for more because they did.

But originally people came to this town for it’s natural beauty, the dells.  More on the amazing Wisconsin Dells tomorrow.  I would come back here to explore more of the dells, other state parks, and the incredible natural land formations that are found in the area.

Here is a tiny glimpse of the main road:

 

 

We ventured out to this park late in the day.  It was the same day that we had hiked at Mirror Lake SP.  Now though, the weather was changing, a cold front was moving through and the rain began to fall.  But I was on a mission to find Balanced Rock at Devil’s Lake, although at this point the kids weren’t quite as enthusiastic as me.  When the trail we were on proved to be the wrong one to take us to Balanced Rock the complaining started as did more rain.  I wasn’t sure if it was worth it to push forth but based on the recommendation from the ranger at Mirror Lake, we decided to press on.  And, in time, we did find the Balanced Rock trail.  I did need to persuade the kids to get out of the van and just give it a try.  Well, the second they hit the rocky staircase they were off and there were a few times I had trouble keeping up with them, especially Koah.  And it turned out that we were so focused on our hike that we completely missed Balanced Rock.  It’s a good thing Jeff and Korben were a good distance behind us because when they caught up to us, they were the ones to tell us that we were well passed the rock. 

You will notice in the pictures that Freya is bare foot and Koah is in flip flops.  I do not recommend this.  But if I had to choose one over the other I would choose the bare feet.  Turns out that flip flops and rocky staircases don’t mix well.  Koah slipped hard and split his gum on the edge of one of the rocks.  While he was biting down on a paper towel to stop the bleeding, he was mumbling “I want to keep going, I want to keep going!”

I would say that this cold rainy afternoon turned out to be pretty incredible.

The wrong trail..

Still the wrong trail… but all smiles for the moment.

My girls.. on the wrong trail!

Found it!

A rest at a stair chair… as we called it.

I’m not sure if we were already passed the rock at this point.

This is the Balanced Rock in the distance.  It was difficult to photograph based on it’s position but really was quite impressive in person.  Honesty, the entire hike was amazing, even in the mist.  And all 4 kids made it all the way up and back on their own… even in flip flops and bare feet!

The hike we did at this park was perfect.  It was short enough, but not too short, for all the kids.  It also followed a beautiful lush forest which led to to an enormous rock, hence the name Echo Rock Trail.  After the rock the trail does open up to Mirror Lake. 

The ranger at the visitors center was fantastic, not only about information on Mirror Lake SP but about other parks in the area too.  She gave each of the kids a booklet, broken down by age, of information along with questions to complete on our hike.  When we returned the completed booklets to the visitors center each child received a patch.  This patch program is something that can be done at many of the state parks in Wisconsin.  My kids loved it, especially Makenzie and Koah who still refer to some of the things they learned through the book that day.