3 Attractions for Families in Wisconsin

Families will find a lot to love about Wisconsin. As they travel around the state, they’ll find children’s museums in Milwaukee, Madison, Sheboygan, Green Bay and many smaller cities. Hiking and bike trails wind through public parks and forests, many leading to waterfalls, caves, towering cliffs and fantastic rock formations.

Lakes and rivers invite water sports, and nature centers help kids understand the environment. Among these and other experiences awaiting families here are these three only-in-Wisconsin attractions.

Circus World Museum
The world’s largest collection of lavishly decorated circus wagons will dazzle kids, and inside the colorful buildings of Circus World Museum are displays and exhibits of circus posters and memorabilia. In summer, the Big Top is alive with circus acts: daredevils on the flying trapeze and Russian swing, motorcycles on the highwire, and feats of horsemanship further enlivened by brigades of clowns and jugglers. The town of Baraboo was the winter home of Ringling Brothers Circus and today preserves those golden years of circus magic.

House on the Rock
Just when you think you’ve seen everything in this rambling compound, another room in the fantastic House on the Rock appears, with a whole new collection of oddities on a different theme. The lifetime collections of a most eccentric man include a 200-foot sea creature, a pyramid of elephants, a display of crown jewels, medieval suits of armor, a carousel with 269 painted animals and another inhabited by elegantly costumed dolls; another gallery is filled with furnished doll houses.

Explore three gigantic theater organ consoles on walkways, bridges and spiral staircases, and listen to a mechanically operated orchestra. Rest your senses in the peaceful Japanese Garden before venturing into Infinity Room, a 218-foot-long, glass-enclosed room cantilevered above the forest.

Dells of the Wisconsin River
Sandstone towers eroded into arches and windows, mushroom-like pillars with bulging tops, and deep side canyons form the 5 miles known as the Dells of the Wisconsin River. The result of weather erosion and eons of the river scouring the stone walls with sand and stone debris from upstream, the canyon is lined by cliffs as high as 100 feet. Access to this dramatic landscape is by boat only, although tour boats stop in two places where visitors can walk through some of the rock formations and into the tributary canyon known as Witches Gulch.

Dells Boat Tours explore the canyon and river, offering full views from seating on the open top, making two stops so passengers can walk alongside the river for closer views of highpoints and to walk through the narrow tributary canyon known as the Witches Bathtub. To see both the river dells and the surrounding forest lands, board the World War II-era amphibious vehicles of Wisconsin Duck Tours.