Wisconsin Dells
Resort Area · Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
A five-mile gorge of Cambrian sandstone on the Wisconsin River, cut about 15,000 years ago when the ice dam holding back Glacial Lake Wisconsin failed and drained a lake the size of the Great Salt Lake through soft rock in a matter of days. The photographer H.H. Bennett made it nationally famous from the 1870s onward, the town renamed itself from Kilbourn City to Wisconsin Dells in 1931 to sell the view, and the first indoor waterpark in the United States was roofed over here in 1989 — which is how a gorge became the highest-volume tourist destination in the state. Note that most of the big resorts are physically in the neighbouring village of Lake Delton, and everything markets itself as the Dells.
Wisconsin Dells Parkway and downtown Broadway, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, 53965, United States
A year-round destination, but only because of the indoor waterparks, which run daily all year. The outdoor waterparks run roughly Memorial Day to Labor Day. The boat tours through the gorge run roughly April to October and the duck tours mid-March to mid-November — in winter the gorge itself is effectively inaccessible.