Falling for Wisconsin's Waterfalls

Potato River Upper Falls

At the beginning of this year, I set out a goal to visit as many of Wisconsin's waterfalls as possible. Somehow life always gets in the way of accomplishing a goal, though. I got a little sidetracked when I decided to pursue finding love instead of waterfalls.

I joined the throngs of people trying their luck at internet dating and after almost a year that included one failed attempt at a long-distance relationship and several first dates, I realized 3 things:

1.  Internet dating is very time-consuming.
2.  Most of the people I was interested in lived too far from me.
3.  Internet dating is not for me.

So after investing tons of time and energy into something that wasn't working, and realizing I had wasted all of my summer and the better part of fall, I gave up.

It's funny though... as soon as you give up and quit trying so hard, things just naturally happen. And that's when I met D. Not online, but in real life.

And I guess for someone like me, so into nature and everything natural, it was fitting that I would find someone naturally rather than trying so hard.

A couple of weeks ago, we took a trip up to Northern Wisconsin. D. remembered that I had mentioned something about wanting to visit Wisconsin's waterfalls and being the thoughtful and sweet person that he is, he offered to spend the weekend showing me a handful of them.

Copper Falls State Park

Copper Falls State Park

Copper Falls State Park

I can't even begin to describe how powerful it is to be in the presence of such magnificence. The photos and videos DO NOT do these masterpieces justice. You have to be there in person. You need to feel the vibration of the water thundering down steep drops, to touch the rocks that were pushed up through the ground with such force that their striations are vertical rather than horizontal... but most of all you need to feel the gentle swirl of the mist.

There's a phenomenon surrounding waterfalls where the force of the water molecules crashing together produces negative ions, which are natural mood-boosters. There have been many studies proving that being near waterfalls is as effective as anti-depressants.

So you can imagine that spending a weekend with a really wonderful person in the presence of all these negative ions could produce some pretty intense happiness. Yeah, I was pretty blissed out... and I'm still riding that bliss wave.

As we ascended the steep embankment from the trail of the last waterfall of the weekend, I gazed down at my dirt-crusted jeans and held up both hands to show D. how much mud and clay I had stuck to my palms and under my fingernails. I commented that I've never looked like this after a date before. He quickly replied that I haven't been dating the right people. What a sweetheart.

VIDEO-Potato River Upper Falls (best viewed in Chrome):

Nothing ever works out the way you think it will, but everything always works out. So after almost a year of failed online dating attempts and wasted time that should have been spent exploring my beautiful state, I finally got to see some of Wisconsin's best waterfalls while falling in love.

Superior Falls

Superior Falls... that's Lake Superior off in the distance (but hard to see).

By the way, Charlie gives her full approval of D. even though she didn't get to come along on this particular adventure. The steep terrain combined with fast-moving current was not a good combination for Charlie's activity level so I opted to leave her home. As always, safety first. Remember to make sure that your pet can handle the type of adventure you take them on and be prepared for everything!