Vacationers pour it on
WISCONSIN | Over holiday weekend, the Dells were flooded again -- with tourists
We're not water-park, fudge-parlor, boat-ride people. But we love the Wisconsin Dells-Baraboo area, anyway.
We're good for at least one long summer weekend there, for the golf, supper clubs and the great outdoors, especially Devil's Lake State Park.
When floods devastated the area in early June, we questioned our usual routine. The June 9 breach that emptied Lake Delton into the Wisconsin River, creating a 270-acre mud pit where waterskiers had entertained and Duck rides had cruised, was the kind of news video that's a chamber of commerce nightmare. So we went to Door County instead.
But a few days before the Fourth of July, we decided to make a quick trip to the Dells. We wanted to see it for ourselves -- and a friend had arranged golf games at Wild Rock, a highly touted new course, and Trapper's Turn, a favorite.
Both courses are outstanding, giving the Dells a shot at becoming a bona fide golf destination. Wild Rock, which opened this spring at the Wilderness resort, is a must-play for Midwestern golfers. It's a sprawling course that's in the same league as the finest in Wisconsin. And Trapper's Turn, recently purchased by the Kalahari resort, has never looked better. The June flooding took out one blue tee box; that was it. To tempt golfers into staying for dinner, an employee drove around the course handing out prime rib samples.
The best discovery, though, was that the Dells has bounced back nicely since the June floods.
Thinking the area wouldn't be as crowded, we didn't pre-book a room. Sometimes it's fun to just pull into a motel because it looks interesting. And with all that ugly flooding publicity, there seemed no better time than now to wing it.
We soon discovered it takes a lot more than high-profile flooding to scare away the family-fun crowd. We saw a long string of "no vacancy" signs at the old-fashioned motels along the main drag, and the water park parking lots were full of cars. We snapped up the last room at a comfortable motel near the interstate.
On the night of the Fourth, we had no trouble getting a table at the Del-Bar, a timeless classic that combines an Art Deco look with an upscale menu. But afterward, the 10-minute trip across town became an hourlong adventure. The highway was clogged with tourists leaving the water parks after the fireworks.
"Would you please tell people the Dells is alive and well?" said Melanie Platt-Gibson, marketing director for the Wisconsin Dells Visitor and Convention Bureau. "I hate to sound like I'm begging, but I'd love that."
I can say it. Because it's true.
That's not to say the region is back to normal. Lake Delton remains a bizarre field of mud where some dry-docked boats still sit. This has forced the Ducks to alter their routes into the river and along some county roads. And with waterskiing grounded, the Tommy Bartlett water show has morphed into a 90-minute sky and stage show.
Even before the flooding, local merchants had added special inducements to counter soaring fuel prices, from the gas cards offered by Trapper's Turn to the free water park passes given out by several local motels.
It all added up to a busy Fourth of July, with the Tanger outlet mall and some resorts reporting record business.
"Families are forgoing air travel because of rising airfares, and they're staying closer to home when they drive," Platt-Gibson said. "Resort owners are telling us their customers are staying longer because in a tough economy, where people only have money for one vacation, this might be their one time this year to make family memories."