Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin - July 7th to 9th, 2021
After spending a couple of days in Rochester Minnesota resupplying and catching up with old friends that we haven’t seen in decades, we headed to Wisconsin. Of course we found an ice cream shop in Rochester before we left. It’s called Flapdoodles. The store is named after the owner’s father’s first boat Flapdoodle. The word flapdoodle means foolish talk or nonsense so the shop walls and tables are covered with little whimsical sayings and riddles. It is a very fun place. Oh, and the ice cream is pretty good, too.
On the way from Rochester, Minnesota to Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin on Wednesday, we visited House on the Rock. Right Buddy’s (RB’s) aunt visited there several times and talked highly of the place. Still, we were not prepared for how large the place is, nor the magnitude of the displays. It is hard to come up with one word to describe House on the Rock. The best word in our minds is “overwhelming”. The house itself has unusual architectural features, such as the Infinity Room. But the house is probably only about one tenth of the whole tour. Our iPhones said we walked three miles in the two and a half hours we were there. Most of the tour was inside. Thank goodness, because it was raining all day. The creator of House on the Rock, Alex Jordan, spent most of his life creating the place. He started building it in 1945 and opened it up for tours starting in 1960 which helped finance his projects until he passed away in 1989. It is hard to describe the man or the place. Alex was like a cross between Henry Ford and Walt Disney. He invented all kinds of self-playing musical instruments and incorporated them into large themed displays or rooms. He didn’t really work from written down designs, but was on site daily directing his workers to turn the ideas in his head into reality. There are large collections of all types of things, some of the items are authentic, some are replicas, and some are Alex’s own creations. House on the Rock is such an eclectic place. It is definitely worth a stop, no matter what your interests are, just to experience what the place is like. The web site says to allow three hours to visit the place. We would agree with that. It only took us two and a half hours, but we pretty much kept walking the whole time, with a break half way through for an ice cream cone, and did not visit the outside gardens since it was pouring down rain.
When we arrived at Devil’s Lake State Park, it was time for dinner. It was still raining, but we put the awning out to sit and cook under. For people saying that we really don’t like our power awning, we sure are using it a lot so far this season. Perhaps we just needed to get away from all the wind in Colorado to appreciate the awning.
Left Buddy (LB) has always been a fan of Frank Loyd Wright. Taliesin is only ten minutes from House on the Rock. However, we’re glad we did not attempt to visit both in the same day. When we looked them up on the internet, Taliesin recommended reserving tour tickets ahead of time. For the full experience, we opted for the longest, most expensive tour they had, the Estate Tour. When we bought our tickets online two days earlier, there was a 9:15 am time slot and a 9:45 am time slot. We opted for the 9:45 am since Devil’s Lake State Park, where we were camping, was an hour away.
The Estate Tour was definitely a different experience from the day before at House on the Rock. We were able to absorb most of what we were seeing and our knowledgeable tour guide helped us interpret what we were seeing. Mr. Wright has a lot of his life’s story wrapped up in the Spring Green area and in the Taliesin estate. Our guide had plenty of stories to tell us about the man, his career, his family, and his philosophy that kept us entertained for four hours. There are three structures we toured the inside of, the Hillside Studio, Tan-y-Deri (his sister’s home), and the Taliesin house with its residence wing, the studio wing, and the agricultural wing.
A shuttle bus took us from the Frank Loyd Wright Visitor Center to the Hillside Studio. From there we walked to all of the other structures, passing by the Romeo and Juliet Windmill Tower and the Midway Barn. About half way through the tour, we were treated with lemonade and fresh baked cookies on the terrace of Taliesin. It was a very pleasant four hours. By the end, we felt we had a pretty good understanding of Frank Loyd Wright’s life. From Taliesin, a shuttle bus returned us to the Visitor Center where we started. The Visitor Center was designed by Frank Loyd Wright to be a supper club with views of the Wisconsin River. Even though we spent more time at Taliesin than at House on the Rock, we did not feel as exhausted as we did the day before.
After a picnic lunch outside of the Visitor Center, we headed out. We remembered there was a scenic overlook between Taliesin and House on the Rock. We thought it had a view of House on the Rock, so we went to check it out. We did not get a picture or view of the house from afar the day before, especially since it was pouring down rain. However, we discovered that if there was a view from the scenic overlook, it has long been obscured by the trees and shrubs. The overlook is so overgrown, we’re not quite sure why there is still an overlook there. There is no view at all, of anything. Perhaps there might be a view in the winter when all the leaves have fallen off of the trees.
Half an hour’s drive north of Devil’s Lake State Park is the town of Wisconsin Dells. RB remembers going on a boat ride on the Wisconsin River with her family when she was a child. Dells Boat Tours is still in business. We arrived at the boat dock parking lot a little after 9 am on Friday. We had our pick of parking spots. We chose the traditional two hour tour of the Upper Dells. The first boat tour was at 10 am and we were on it. The boat is two decks and we wanted a seat on the open upper deck for the better views. Seating is first come/first serve, so we got in line at about 9:40 am and had no problem getting an upper deck spot.
The boat ride goes through the five miles of the Wisconsin River that is the Dells of the Wisconsin River State Natural Area. The river is narrow along this stretch, with rock formations of layered Cambrian sandstone lining the banks. The tour includes two landings, one at Witch’s Gulch and one at Standing Rock.
Witch’s Gulch was our favorite part of the tour. It is a short walk through a narrow, slot canyon, with a creek flowing below the boardwalk. There is a concession stand at the end of the walk, but we did not partake.
Standing Rock is where photographer H. H. Bennett took the photograph of his son leaping the five foot gap over to Standing Rock to demonstrate his invention of the stop-action shutter in 1886. The tour has a re-enactment of that leap using a dog. The leaping dog is what RB’s dad remembers from the boat tour, but we found it a little underwhelming. However, the short walk back to the boat is among some interesting rock formations.
After the boat tour and a picnic lunch at some picnic tables near the parking lot, we walked the short, half mile River Walk to stretch our legs. The rest of the town of Wisconsin Dells was too touristy to interest us. Maybe it was a cute town at one point, but no longer. It now seems to cater to families seeking thrill attractions. Even Dells Boats has added a jet boat tour and a duck boat tour. The several miles of US 12 from Wisconsin Dells to I-90 was one theme park, water park, and resort hotel after another.
We had passed through Baraboo on our way to Wisconsin Dells. It seemed like a cute little town. That sounded better to us, so we headed back there. Baraboo is where the Ringling Brothers Circus started. It is then no surprise that it is home to Circus World and the International Clown Hall of Fame. We normally don’t enjoy visiting museums, so we passed those two up.
We are into ice cream and we found a nice ice cream shop on the town square, Tin Roof Dairy. Inside, we were pleasantly surprised, not only by the large selection of wonderful ice cream (Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream), but the old time soda fountain. They had a long list of flavors of phosphates, cream sodas, carbonated sodas, and ice cream sodas. RB had mint chip and Zanzibar chocolate ice cream while Left Buddy (LB) had his vanilla shake. The Zanzibar chocolate was fantastic. It combined three different kinds of cocoa for a really deep, rich, dark chocolate. Right up RB’s alley!
Our stroll around the town square was peaceful and relaxing, quite a contrast to the town of Wisconsin Dells just a few miles away. The old architectural details of the buildings and the little elephant statues provided us with enough interesting sights. The beautiful details of the Al Ringling Theater were especially intriguing.
After our stroll, we headed back to Tin Roof Dairy. LB wanted to try the cherry phosphate. It was very tasty and refreshing. What a great way to end our day.
Check out our related video: Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
(RB)