Description: The Upper Dells Boat Tour is a 2-hour tour of the portion of the Wisconsin River above the dam. Long before the Wisconsin Dells contained waterparks and amusement parks, tourists were coming to the area as early as the 1850's to canoe the Wisconsin River and admire the sandstone rock formations. As we floated along, we were able to see the same odd rock formations that have been standing in this area for 500 million years. The Dells is one of the few places in the world where this type of exposed bedrock can be observed.
Our guide pointed out rock formations and told us their local names such as Chimney Rock, Alligator Rock, and Black Hawk's Profile. These were fun to spot but what I really enjoyed about the Upper Dells Boat Tour were the two shore landings.
The first was Witches Gulch. As we walked along the wooden walkway, I felt like we were walking through a dark enchanted forest full of sandstone rocks and trees. My wife and my mother were snapping pictures until I noticed we had started to lag far behind our tour group. Thinking we were missing narration from our guide, we hurried along the path to catch up. However, there was no narration - just a souvenir shop, a snack bar, and restrooms.
After about 20 minutes, everyone made their way back to our boat so that we could be transported across the river to our second landing. It was here that we were led to Stand Rock. These tall pedestal sandrock formations are where H. H. Bennett introduced the world to stop-action photography when he photographed his son leaping across the two rocks in 1886. We were given the chance to capture a similar photo by means of a German Shepherd trained to leap across the gap. Unfortunately, the dog jumped too fast for us to capture the shot.
We continued up a long ramp that ended with another souvenir shop, snack bar, and restroom facility. There was an area labeled "scenic overlook" so I headed there to take a look. I assumed I was missing something because the view of the river was not anything special in my eyes. Despite this, I had thoroughly enjoyed the tour. We headed down some steps to the boat which had moved to meet us at this new location and then headed back to port.
During our ride back to port, our guide sold copies of the Dells Boat Tour Official Guidebook for $4.00. The thin book has nice photographs and descriptions of what we saw so we bought a copy. There are several versions of the Dells Boat Tours so be sure to visit their website to find one that is right for you:
http://www.dellsboats.com.
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