Most people who visit the Wisconsin Dells spend their nights at cheesy motels and their days immersed in water at the area’s parks.  And, I have to admit, this does have its charms.  Kathy and I took one of those timeshare vacations at the Dells a few years ago.  Once we survived the pressure tactics, I enjoyed myself for about three hours floating on a lazy river.  But the Dells do celebrate an honest-to-god natural attraction.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a RECOMMENDED story about a canoe journey through the Dells on the Wisconsin River taken by descendents of a famed Dells photographer.

Before I throw down the excerpts and link, here’s a tip:  The Wisconsin Dells tourism bureau gives 20% off S.S. Badger coupons to Michiganders who request the Dells travel information package.  It can potentially save lots of money on a cross-lake vacation.

http://wisdells.com/WisconsinDellsVacation/guide.cfm

Now, the excerpts:

We had returned to the river that H.H. Bennett loved so much. H.H. Bennett was our great-grandfather, the pioneer landscape photographer of the Dells of the Wisconsin River and its environs from 1865 to his death in 1908.

During our childhoods, spanning the period of 1947 to 1970, Debbie, Lisa and I had spent many happy hours near and on the river, hiking the trails and cliffs and boating in canoes and a family pontoon boat. The children of H.H. Bennett’s second marriage, our grandmother Ruth Bennett Dyer and great-aunt Miriam Bennett, taught us to cherish its beauty and instilled in us the importance of preserving it by picking up any trash we might find along the riverbanks.

After watching the osprey and carp, we passed a beach where our parents had camped in their youth. We were then across from Cold Water Canyon, a narrow gorge that was a stop on the boat trips in years past. We paddled over to enjoy the shade and coolness.

The water was so still that the surface was covered with green algae, with its own peculiar pleasant odor. The pines growing closely together some 30 feet above us on the rock walls almost completely obscured the sunlight, and we enjoyed the light breeze passing over us.

Re-entering the main channel at the head of the Narrows, we hugged the right side of the river. Sandstone cliffs that resemble prows of ships line this part of river, known as the Navy Yard. It had been so long since I had been so close to the cliffs I was enchanted to see how many little caves were formed by nature.

More here…

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=751504

Note: The photographs above are pre-1920 and, thus, in the public domain.

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