Wisconsin Dells is a city in Southern Wisconsin. The Wisconsin River is running right by the city. There are numerous water parks, theme parks and entertainment centers include famous Noah’s Ark Water Park, Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park. Wisconsin Dells has also been called The Water Park Capital of The World. The city is usually packed by people in Summer when the outside water parks are open. If you don’t like being among the crowd like us, you may want to come off the season. Even though the outside water parks closed, you still can enjoy the fun at indoor water parks and theme parks. If you love nature, there are several state parks close by Wisconsin Dells, such as Mirror Lake State Park, Devil’s Lake State Park and Rocky Arbor State Park. There are also other activities you can do.

Let me introduce five things we did in Wisconsin Dells off the season.

Wizard Quest

Wizard Quest is the computer interactive games played in a live setting. The setting is a 13000 sq. feet fantasy-themed labyrinth. Your whole group works as a team, find the answers for the riddles showed on a Kindle in four different area themed as earth, water, fire, and sky. Some answers are easy to find, some are hidden. After you figure out riddles, that helps you free the wizards. You have 75 minutes to finish the adventure. My kids love this game. They have played three times. They failed the first and the second time, and on the third time, they helped to free two wizards. They were so excited that they got a 10% coupon in the gift shop shopping as a reward.

Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum

This museum is next door to the Wizard Quest. If you like to explore the oddest things in the world, such as two-headed sheep and six-legged cow, a picture made of toast crumbs, the experience of King Tut of his Egyptian Temple, then you must come to this three floors with 11 amazing galleries illustrations. There are lots of things you never have seen before. I like the big wax statue right by the door when you walk in. This young native Indian guy(I thought was a lady in the beginning), whose weight is about 1,000 pounds. I was kidding if I was comparable to him when my husband took this photo for me. The other one is a dog made of different materials you never thought of. Did you see a comb on the dog’s back? Yes, it was a plastic comb! If you have nothing to do on a cold or rainy day, this museum may give you some surprise.

Rick Wilcox Magic Theater

Do you and your kids like magic shows? We do! We went to Rick Wilcox Magic Theater on Saturday night. The theater was full of families. During the two hours show time, lots of fun and laugh. Rick also invited audience to be his volunteer on the stage. The best volunteer was a nine years old boy. He was so entertainment, started doing things without Rick’s direction. Well nothing was dangerous of course, but tons of laugh just between two of them. I thought maybe that boy wasn’t a real audience. But I was wrong. I met his mom and dad during middle time. He was so polite and smart. The hilarious part was my husband being a volunteer part. Well when Rick asked a grandpa who was using a smartphone to be a volunteer, no one stood up. My husband’s nephew just had a baby girl who week, so he thought he was a grand-uncle equaled to a grandpa. So he went to the stage, gave Rick his smartphone to put in a cloth bag. Rick’s wife Suzan, who’s also his assistant, racked the bag so hard and she thought she broke the phone. So they tried to order a new phone to replace it. And there was a UPS guy prep-delivered box sitting on the stage from the beginning of the show, with an antiquated phone inside with a screwdriver. When Nick opened the bottom part of that old phone, my husband’s smartphone was sitting right inside. Amazing, right? I couldn’t forget the shocking face my husband had when he saw his smartphone came out of the old one. We laughed him whole night long.

Red Ridge Ranch Horseback Riding

Red Ridge Ranch is located on WI-82, Mouston, Wisconsin, about 20 minutes driving from Wisconsin Dells. It’s off the road of Interstate 90, on the way we drove back home. They offer Guided Trail Rides, Sleigh/Wagon Rides, Pony Rides, Advanced & Private Rides. They also have a summer camp for kids who are willing to take care of the horses. It opens year round. You’d better reserved online before you go. We went there for the Guided Trail Rides. The horse I rode his name was Cornel. He was taller than the other two girl horses. They were his girlfriends, and their names are White Beauty and Brown Beauty. Cornel was a little bit naughty than the other horses. When everyone was lined up waiting for the guiding instructor, he was wandering around and tried to get close to his girlfriends. I was super nervous didn’t know how to control him because it was my first time riding a horse by myself. I kept patting on his neck and saying”nice horsy stay still…”. My son was teasing me that I learned horse language by riding Cornel. The trail was beautiful, with different conditions, like up and down the hill, passing the muddy puddle, sandy field, through the woods. You can also let the horse slowly running for a while on the flat path. But be aware your legs may get hurt after riding the horse because the inside of your thighs was against the saddle.

Hiking in the Devil’s Lake State Park

Devil’s Lake State Park is located in Baraboo, Wisconsin. It is 20 minutes driving from downtown Wisconsin Dells. I introduced this stake park in my previous post “Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin Dells”. You could check out the details by clicking the link.

There are still so many fun activities that we haven’t done, such as Bigfoot Zipline adventure. This is on my daughter’s waiting list. Maybe we’ll do it when we revisit Wisconsin Dells next year. I hope these five things we have done will help you to know a little bit more of Wisconsin Dells, except the famous water parks.