Original Wisconsin Ducks Boat Tour, Wisconsin Dells

We took a ride on the Original Wisconsin Ducks tour in Wisconsin Dells. A generous and well-connected uncle hooked us up with tickets. We arrived on a weekday, so the line was very short to get on.

Ready to ride!

The "ducks" are amphibious trucks, the kind used in World War II to land troops and supplies in places without ports. It drives along the land and can switch to cruising on a body of water. In this case, we would be floating down the Wisconsin River along with visiting Lake Delton. But all that was after we headed out on the trail, which had plenty of signs warning stray drivers that they were on the wrong path.

Private roads!

Our driver was a college student who had been working for the company for seven years, starting in other jobs before getting to be a tour guide and duck pilot.

Our first view was of statues from the demolished Chicago Board of Trade Building. Local businessman W. J. Newman bought the statues and brought them to Wisconsin Dells to decorate a home by Lake Delton. They eventually wound as part of the tour property. 

Holding up a corner in a previous life?

The drive took us into the forests flanking the river, with many little valleys, gorges, and dells. Fern Dell provides shade and cooler temperatures. The difference was noticeable, maybe as much as ten degrees.

Ferns in the valley

A bit of the rock formations in our future

The area has a lot of layered rock known as sandstone. The formations make dramatic (though not tall) cliffs. At the bottom of the dell, our driver switched gears and drove into the Wisconsin River for a look at the river.

Shifting to aquatic mode

Some of the cliffs

The small cliffs' porous rock allows plants and trees to grow easily from them. Sometimes those provide stability, sometimes more erosion. The opposite shore showed a lot of tree-lined beaches without sandstone.

Not cliffs

Growth on the cliff side

The guide told a story about one of the formations. A preacher would come in the 1800s to speak to the natives as they sailed by. The natives didn't pay a lot of attention to him until he had a piano brought in. Then he would play piano and preach, gaining more interest even if he did not gain more adherents. Eventually, the cliff gave way and the piano crashed. You can see the rock formation that looks like a piano on the right side of the picture below. So it was a shaggy dog story. 

"Piano Falls" probably wouldn't have been a good name

Another formation is called "Hawk's Bill," just at the end of Black Hawk Gorge. The driver told us it was named after a native chief--Chief Gorge. The chief had a son he named Boy Gorge. The boy had a pet monkey he called Curious Gorge. And there were a lot of other jokes spun out from there. I loved it while my children groaned.

The Hawk's Bill formation

Better view of the hawk-like top

I was surprised to see other boaters on the water. Some were water skiing, some just cruising leisurely. The river is open to everyone.

Kayakers

A turtle sunning itself

Ready to fish? Or just sightseeing?

We saw some wildlife, but only rarely. This bird below looked like a hawk but photographed like a smudge.

Bird on the wing

Are those supposed to stop ducks from landing?

As we approached an overpass, our driver turned right into Dell Creek, driving up over a small bit of land and into Lake Delton.

Looking to turn

Dell Creek

Lake Delton Dam (with a sign in case you didn't know it was a dam)

Driving into the lake

Dam viewed from the other side

The dam was built in the 1920s by W. J. Newman (the same guy who brought the statues) to create a leisure lake in the Dells. The lake became a center for local tourism, with many resorts opening along the shores along with the larger homes. In 2008, excessive rain overfilled the lake and, while workers shored up the dam, the water went over a county highway next to the dam. It washed away the ground under the road and cleared out a channel 400 feet wide. The lake drained in two hours and Dell Creek had a new course. In about a year, locals, with the help of state and federal aid, were able to repair the road and rechannel the creek. The dam was refurbished so that it could release excess water. The lake filled again and things went back to normal.

Resort "tree houses" being built to open in 2026

Crossing over the road, we went back into the forest and took a drive through a very tight gorge, with only a few inches of clearance for the duck.

Some pleasant forest (and our last view of the river)

About to run through the rocks

At the tightest point

The area was part of an estate. A fire cleared one field of trees so the owner planted new ones, in perfectly aligned rows!

Such order and precision!

We finally made it back to the Duck dock, where we saw some of the other ducks waiting to have their turn.

More ducks

The trip was a lot of fun with some jokes and some history thrown in with the beautiful natural (and artificial) landscapes.