Late July of ’21 my cousin got married near Wausau and it was the perfect opportunity for a short weekend camping trip. Weather was surprisingly mild for this time of year and temps were only in the high 70’s / low 80’s making it very pleasant. It didn’t take long before deciding that I would camp at Cedar Falls Campground in Hazelhurst, Wisconsin for a chance to capture Cedar Falls from the air with the drone. I booked campsite 12 which was adjacent to a small river access spot with big, flat rocks to stand on – an ideal spot for fishing or launching a drone.
Views looking downstream on the Tomahawk River that lead into the Willow Flowage are peaceful and calm. If I had more time on this trip I might have gone on a daytrip in the kayak but wasn’t in the cards today.
From the spot I was standing – which to my knowledge is the best public access without trespassing across other campsites or private lands – you can see a bit of turbulence upstream but not much. I visited back in 2018 and learned quickly that views from the road bridge entering camp leave much to be desired. Far as I can tell there is no other good way to see the falls from downstream without taking to the sky.
Once up in the air I found a small rapids or lower falls section that drops maybe 3 feet with smaller rapids above. Tough to get a good shot as the small trees on the far bank prevented the best flight paths. Didn’t even expect to find this, pretty cool!
And just a few hundred yards upstream I was able to get my shot at Cedar Falls. Much better view from the downstream side! Judging by the rocks along the river water levels are 1-2 feet low right now so imaging how much more exciting this one gets when it’s full flow in springtime.
Video
Here’s a short video of the falls. Appreciate anyone who wants to subscribe to my YouTube. I’m considering doing longer videos and possibly adding narration/voiceover for future trips – let me know in the comments if you have ideas/feedback!
Lat = 45.7581444 , Long = -89.8456039 -- Show at Google Maps
Hi Adam… I see you found the lower Cedar Falls waterfall… it’s been on my list to video for a couple years but it’s so far off the beaten path I have yet to go there… got the main falls years ago but at that time did not know about the lower falls!
Yep it was a surprise to find the lower falls but easy to view using the drone! I tried to get there by foot but it’s near impossible to get good views (campground side you’d be going into someone else’s space which is no good, other size is dense brush and bad sight lines).
May have to buy your drone footage if I cannot find video I like!!!
Adam… forgot a comment… I don’t like commentary on waterfalls… just like the sound of water bubbling… maybe a few short comments at the beginning or at the ending would be OK… just personal opinion… a lot of people like music with the video… also, strongly dislike that (it’s not natural to find an orchestra at a waterfall site!!!).
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate the honest reply. Regarding the commentary I’m still split on that. Regarding the music: I mainly use it to fill sound on the drone shots since there is no natural sound on those. Too much work filling it with dubbed/”fake” sounds that align with video timing. Will be constantly revisiting this as I go along. Worst case I guess people can mute the video to not hear my voice or the music.