Not sure I’ve mentioned this but waterfalls are pretty cool. The area around north central Wisconsin has plenty of them too. Next stop was the Dells of the Eau Claire River State Natural Area in Aniwa, WI (near Wausau). I didn’t know much about this location before visiting, but glad I stopped here.
I parked in the far eastern lot of the main visitor area and hiked mostly the north bank of the river. Right from the parking lot I observed cool views of the calm water reflecting the trees. Moving down the trail (which is designated as part of the Ice Age Trail) you get glimpses of the dells/rapids the farther you go.
During intersections of the trail there are several warning signs of imminent danger. Based on previous travels, this roughly translates to “cool things are coming up, don’t die”.
I continued down the north bank until reaching the main waterfall/dells/rapids area. This location has some non-typical rock formations directly in the middle of the river. According to the DNR page these are Precambrian-age rocks that are very hard which prevents rapid erosion.
I crossed a bridge to the south bank briefly and observed the flowing water from another angle. This area had much more moss and pine cover and felt very secluded. Since it was raining I was the only person in sight.
Hiking Data
Not much distance was covered since I spent more time taking photos than actually moving. I could have spent much longer here but the weather was crap, and I also didn’t realize it was part of the IAT. I will be back here another time to cover more ground. As far as my waterfall checklist goes, this was one of the cooler spots so far.
Great pictures!! Thanks for the hiking data too!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed them!