NOTE: IN ORDER TO BETTER SEE PHOTOS IN THEIR FULL 1600 PX. RESOLUTION, VIEW THEM IN THE ALBUM FORMAT BY CLICKING ON THE LEAD PHOTO OR ANY PHOTO IN THE POST. This is especially true for landscape shots. Thanks to Mark for the idea of adding this alert so the photos can be seen at their best!

Friday, May 26, 2017

Dells of the Eau Claire

The Dells of the Eau Claire River park has been on my to-do list ever since I started walking parts of the Ice Age Trail.  My Guidebook is enthusiastic about the spring wildflower show there so when I ended up in the Wausau area less than 2 weeks ago I made my way over to see what all the fuss was about.

Trillium carpet beneath the trees

If you think the park is near Eau Claire you are off by about 100 miles, and don't confuse it with the Wisconsin Dells either.  The park was less than 10 minutes west of downtown Wausau and includes a beach area and campground.  I thought about staying the night but when I got out of my car I was engulfed in a swarm of mosquitoes so I went back to Wausau to stay at their Marathon Park city campground in the middle of town instead.  Not fancy, but surprisingly quiet and mosquito-free!

Tons of Trout Lilies too!

But before I left I explored the river and the dells itself which was not as mosquito infested downstream from the camping area.


A less than 3 mile segment of the IAT cuts through the park, and I saw the yellow blazes along the river so while I didn't walk the whole thing I saw enough to satisfy my curiosity.  This stretch of the Eau Claire River cascades over outcrops of Precambrian-age rhyolite schist, a very hard rock which was formed through metamorphosis and later tilted here to a nearly vertical position allowing the rock to split readily along the cleavage planes. (from the DNR website)



 From 1935 to 1942 the CCC built a foot-bridge using stones from the gorge that crosses the river further downstream. They also constructed stone steps leading to the falls area and other structures.


Most of my pictures didn't turn out so great for some reason, but the video turned out nicely.  However, I am still having trouble with the image being jerky and pixelated once uploaded to YouTube compared to the amazing crispness I see when I play it just after I edit it on my computer.  Some of my videos have this problem and some of them don't, and I checked and they are all MP4 edited with the same program (Movie Maker) and uploaded the same way to YouTube. Any help in this would be much appreciated!  A river is better seen in action, hope you enjoy it as much as I did!



1 comment: