Are you brave enough to take the Ghost Boat down the Wisconsin Dells to Haunted Canyon?

Wisconsin DellsPhoto by Ethan Walsweer on Unsplash

You're familiar with haunted houses. Perhaps you've stayed in a haunted hotel. But have you heard of Haunted Canyon?

The Ghost Boat is a haunted attraction with a difference. Take a boat in the dark down the Wisconsin River, through the Wisconsin Dells. Then get out and tour the pitch-dark territory of Haunted Canyon.

As their website tells it:

Wisconsin Dells legends tell of ancient canyons buried deep in the rocky banks of the Wisconsin River, where dark things haunt the passageways and shadows move in the moonlight. What lurks inside? Take an eerie, after-dark journey up-river by boat and then WALK through the shadow-haunted passages, and find out.

The Wisconsin Dells are beautiful during the day. Each rock formation is unique, formed by glacial meltwater that created a deep channel through the sandstone.

However, these same rock formations take on a shadowy, eerie appearance at night. This makes the boat ride a creepy journey deep into a place with no light.

As you ride, the boat shares the legends of the area. Native Americans believe a large serpent helped form the river. "Crawling over the forests and the fields, his huge body wore an immense groove in the land and the water rushed in behind him. At his approach, lesser serpents fled forming the canyons which lead off from the main channel. It was these timid, lesser serpents that formed Coldwater Canyon and Witches’ Gulch, so the legend goes."

Walking into the canyon in the pitch dark would already be frightening, but wait until you do it with witches and zombies screaming out from the night.

Once you arrive, you're greeted by a lighted apparition. Identifying as "the nameless one, source of all evil," the apparition will warn you not to go any further. But how could you resist?

No spoilers on the actual experience. Zombies, skeletons, evil clowns, if you're scared of it, you just may see it. Delighted laughs morph into scared silence as the experience unfolds around you. Your job is just to get out of the canyon safely. But according to the tour video: "No one has dared venture into the Haunted Canyon, for those that come in, never come out."

As these guests say: "it was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed myself. Don't take kids that are too young."

If you're looking to combine Halloween spookiness with some ghost stories and a view of the stars, the Ghost Boat might be just the ticket.

This article is not sponsored. Links are not affiliated.