Week 3: Running Water

Even though I am originally from Denver, CO I grew up in Wisconsin and have always called it home. In the region where I live we are surrounded by the Wisconsin River. The river in itself brings many tourists each year to take in its sights and great sandstone cliffs that surround it. I often frequent the river in the summer time as many locals love to go boating and enjoy the many sand bars, beaches, and rock formations that it has to offer. The great sand stone that surrounds it was made up by the river washing away, flooding, and then back to its normal size again. One process that I learned that helps to make up a River is called, a drainage basin. This is the area that is drained by a river or a stream and the boundaries between the drainage basins are called divides. The Wisconsin River is formed by the Mississippi River which actually makes up quite a bit of the rivers in the United States. The Mississippi is made up of many smaller drainage basins that stretch all the way from Montana, to southern Canada, etc.  Many of the formations on the Wisconsin River that you see today are named and date back millions of years. My favorite formation is called the Sugar Bowl. I have attached a picture below. This formation is located on the lower dells, a more quiet reserved part of the Wisconsin River located in Wisconsin Dells. The upper dells consists of more named sand stone formations but has proven to be a lot more touristy. In the picture below you can see the sugar bowl followed by a Dells boat tour that frequents both the upper and lower dells highlighting these great wonders formed by the Wisconsin River.