A Fall Ride On The Upper Dells Boat Tour

In last week's travel post  I shared that we went to the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend (we actually went two weekends in a row we loved it so much!).  On Saturday we hiked in Devil's Lake State Park, and then that evening we enjoyed strolling in downtown Wisconsin Dells.  The next morning, we took a Wisconsin Dells Upper Boat Tour.

Even though it might be chilly, fall is the perfect time to take an Upper Dells Boat Tour because the foliage is so beautiful!  Just be sure to dress nice and warm, as it is chilly when that boat moves on the water.

On the day we took our tour, it was cold (42 degrees) and cloudy and we were FREEZING because the weather app did not predict these cold temperatures so we were not prepared for it.  But we huddled close to stay warm, and we couldn't help to enjoy ourselves because the views were so breath-taking.

Can you see why we thought the views were breath-taking?  Just look at the color!  The dells formation with the colorful foliage on top makes it so much more beautiful than if you took a boat tour in summer and all you saw was green.

So now you're probably wondering "What are Dells?"  They are glacier-carved sandstone formations.  They surround the Wisconsin River.  Their layered appearance is just so interesting.

There are two boat tours in the Wisconsin Dells:  an upper dells boat tour and a lower dells boat tour.  The upper dells boat tour is twice and long as the lower dells tour and it includes two stops:  Witches Gulch and Stand Rock.  A dam  separates the upper and lower dells.

I believe the large rock formation is called "High Rock".

Now, the number one reason I wanted to take this boat tour was to see Witches Gulch.  You see, a year earlier we took the family to the Dells for a weekend fall getaway.  On our hotel's wall were vintage photos of this amazing place called "Witches Gulch".  I wanted to see it so badly so I googled it to try and find it.  To my dismay, I discovered that the area was not open to the public and the only way to see it was to take an Upper Dells Boat Tour.  I made a mental note to come back again next year and take a tour.

Witches Gulch is a beautiful slot canyon.  PLEASE watch one of the videos at the end of this post to get a feel for this amazing place.  You walk through the canyon on a wooden boardwalk.  Below the bridge is moving water and a hidden whirlpool chamber.   The walls of the canyon surround you and seem to tower above as well.  Beautiful green moss covers all the canyon walls.  

There are many superstitions surrounding this place, hence the title "Witches Gulch".  According to Native American legend a great serpent, wriggled  down from the north and his home near the Big Lake,  forming the bed of the Wisconsin River.  Witches Gulch and Coldwater Canyon were formed by more timid, lesser serpents. 

Other tales came from the early raftsmen (if you listen to the videotape on the boat tour below, you will hear our tour guide discuss the early raftsmen and what the river was like before they built a dam and separated the river into the upper and lower dells) who believed that a point in the river known as "Devil's Elbow" was an evil point that had no bottom to the water and was a portal to hell.

I always find it interesting that any beauty of nature is always giving the glory to Satan, instead of  to God the creator.  No matter where we travel, some beautiful, scenic area is always described "Devils....something".  

When you reach the end of "Witches Gulch" there is a concession stand and restrooms.  Some might not appreciate the commercialism, but I for one was happy to use the potty and get a cup of hot chocolate to warm my bones.  

We had twenty minutes to explore the gulch and visit the restrooms and concession stand.  At first, I thought it wouldn't be enough time, but is was enough.  We all got back on the boat for our next stop Stand Rock.

Stand Rock is famous for this photograph.  You see this famous photograph everywhere you go in the Dells. The photo was taken by photographer H.H. Bennett in 1886.  He specialized in landscape photography and his photos of the dells turned the Wisconsin Dells into the major tourist attraction it is today.  The photo below is significant because it was Bennett who created a new shutter to allow photographers to take pictures of moving objects.  However Bennett's son Ashley still had to make the jump 18 times to get the shot Bennett wanted.

Many people have made the jump between these two rocks over the years.  Now, the only one who jumps it is a trained dog.  Watching the dog jump the rocks is included in the Upper Dells Boat Tour and you can see it for yourself in one of the videos at the end of this post.  And don't worry about the dog.  Today there is a safety net underneath the rocks.

To our surprise, after we watched the Dog Jump show the fun wasn't over yet for on the way back to the boat there were even more interesting rock formations with a lot of history to them.

The first one is called "Toadstool Rock", can you guess why?

There is a second concession stand/restrooms in this area but it was closed for the season.  On the building of this stand was a large sign explaining the photography of H.H. Bennet and some of the famous rock formations we were now looking at ourselves.

This is "Luncheon Hall".  It is this beautiful rock "window" overlooking the Wisconsin River.  It's just stunning in person.

And if you caught Monday's Fashion Post, you would have seen this picture.  I am standing beneath Visor Ledge...another rock formation H.H. Bennet made famous.

Well, after our last stop at Stand Rock it was time to get back onto the boat and enjoy the trip back.  We were the first tour boat out on the water so it was very peaceful.  We saw an eagle perched in a tree and lots of kayakers and fishermen.

We really loved our boat tour and wondered why we waited so long to take one.  It is surprisingly very inexpensive for all you get on the tour, costing a mere $32.00 for an adult ticket.  They also have ghost tours which are taken after dark (I kept wondering how much you could possibly see in the dark, although I did see lights on the side of the river so I think they must light it up nicely), summer sunset dinner cruises, jet boat tours, and the famous "Wisconsin Ducks".  I hope to be able to take another tour next year, we still need to see the lower dells!

In the meantime, enjoy the videos we took.  They are all super short.  I know I will never watch a video that is too long, so I keep them short on purpose.

Dog Jump At Stand Rock

Boat Tour 

(Guide explains how the early raftsman made it through the waters)

The next three videos show different sections of Witches Gulch!

 Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Handmade Sympathy Cards

2020 has sure been a sad year for us, as I know it has been for everyone on our planet.  In addition to Covid and all the political and social issues, we've lost a lot of loved ones to cancer, heart disease, and dementia.  It seems I have had to make more sympathy cards than cards to celebrate life.

If I have the time, I always prefer to send a handmade sympathy card than a store bought one.  I feel taking the extra effort to put some time into making a card is the very least I can do.  The first card is made using two old retired Stampin' Up! sets "Brighter Tomorrow" and "Happy Harmony".  I know, it's kind of ironic that I made a sympathy card from a set called "Happy Harmony" but I loved the flower image.

To make the card, using a Stampamajig I randomly stamped the flower image from the "Happy Harmony" set all over a sky blue card base.  I then cut a scalloped border out of white card stock along with a strip of "Close to Cocoa" card stock and sewed them directly onto the sky blue card base using a sewing machine. Sewing on a card seems odd to some, but I feel it adds just a little bit of interest to a card and it's so easy to do.

I then stamped the sentiment onto white card stock with an image from retired Stampin' Up! "Brighter Tomorrow" and cut it into a scalloped oval shape using a die from Spellbinder's Nestabilities.  I sponged light blue ink on the edges, then I popped it up on dimensionals.  The butterflies were cut using an old Cuttlebug die.  I glued just the bodies of the butterflies to the card to add more dimension.  Small, metallic pearls were added to some of the dots in the flower images.

My next card only uses images from the retired Stampin' Up! set "Thoughts and Prayers".  Since it's fall, I decided to create a fall sympathy card and stamped the image in fall colors.  I picked a dark purple and brown to frame the main image then I decorated the card with a bow.

I used Stampin' Up! Watercolor Markers to color different fall colors directly onto the stamp.  Then I huffed on it to remoisten the ink, and stamped.

Have A Great Day!

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

 

A Fall Outfit For A Boat Ride

If you are looking for the Ageless Style Link Up I regret to inform you that the ladies in the group decided to call it quits.  I was not part of that decision and I was extremely disappointed the ladies did not want to do it anymore.  I feel way too many link ups are ending and the reasons for them ending just make no sense at all to me.  I was so excited to join the group, and I think I only participated in three challenges, and suddenly after years, they want to fold.  It made me wonder "Was it me?".  Oh well.  I'd start my own link up but I always struggled with the link up codes.  I just don't have the technical skills.  But if there is any other over-40 fashion link up group that's wants a new blogger....I'm free!

I will be honest, ever since Covid, my fashion days came to an end.  Because everything seems to be cancelled, other than grocery shopping and hiking, I mostly seem to be wearing activewear.  I have not purchased one new piece of clothing in six months other than a $25.00 dress for a wedding and lots of face masks/neck gaiters.  Since our activities are so limited now, my husband and I have been doing a lot of outdoor activities. I did have to buy new activewear when we had a sudden cold spell hit Wisconsin and got dumped with a record breaking six inches of snow.  Due to this unexpected cold, I had to find activewear to keep me toasty warm while hiking.  I tried Under Armour Cold Gear and just loved it!  I hope to do an active wear fashion post soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to show you an outfit I wore to the Wisconsin Dells and a Dells Boat Tour the next day.

The evening before our boat ride it was a gorgeous, sunny, warm 65 degrees.  We walked around the downtown Dells area and took these beautiful pictures as the sun set.  It was so romantic.

I always check the weather and it was supposed to be warm all weekend, so I only brought this one outfit plus my active wear.  Well, to our surprise (and everyone else's in the Dells area) the next day the temperatures never got out of the 40's so I was very ill-prepared for a Dells Boat tour.

On the sunny, warm day before the boat tour I was able to just wear a rust tee with a camel cardigan.  The bottoms are jean leggings from Stitch Fix, and I wore camel booties on my feet.  The camel infinity scarf is actually a neck gaiter to meet Covid restrictions.  I am not one of those people who is terrified of getting Covid.  I believe in the sovereignty of God and what will happen will happen.  I trust Him for my protection and if He chooses to allow me to get the disease, I trust that is His will.  For me, the neck gaiters work the best.  I can wear it as a scarf around my neck, and they are easy peasy to pull up when I need to enter a building.  So I have collected a lot of them, and when Covid ends, I can still use them as infinity scarves.

This is one of my favorite cardigans.  I love thin knits that don't add a lot of bulk to my frame.  The color works with so many of my outfits and I like the length.

As I said earlier, everything in this outfit is old as I'm not buying new clothes during Covid but I will link to something similar at the end of the post.

Because the next morning was so cold, I had to amend my outfit slightly.  What I really needed was a parka, but unfortunately I didn't bring one.  So to stay a little warmer I put my black activewear jacket on underneath my cardigan.  It's so thin, it fit without looking bulky.  Thankfully,  I did have the foresight to bring a blanket scarf so I threw that over my shoulders.  Scarves are such great additions when traveling.  Always bring a scarf when you travel...they can be lifesavers if the weather changes suddenly, and they take up such little space in your luggage.  In this picture, I left the scarf untied, but the wind from the boat kept blowing it off, so I eventually tied it in a knot in front as you will see in the next picture.

I'm still loving my brown hobo bag that was a present from my son.  It's so big and roomy and the brown color is so fashionable right now.

Here is what the scarf looked like from the back.  Yea, I know, you're probably all wondering what I'm looking at.  But you'll have to wait till my next travel post to find out!

Rust Tee Shirt (old, TJMaxx, similar HERE), Beige Cardigan (old, TJMaxx, similar HERE),  Jeggings (old, Stitch Fix, similar HERE), Beige Booties (old, DSW, similar HERE), Blanket Scarf (old, similar HERE), and Brown Cognac Bag (exact one still available HERE).

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!