The Headwaters of the Mississippi

 

For our last day in Minnesota we decided to head north to see the source of the Mississippi River.  The river actually starts in Lake Itasca State Park. You can visit the park and walk across the source. We decided to make this trip on the Monday of the 4th of July weekend. It was busy. We had to wait in line at the park entrance to pay to get in and then we had to visit the source with about 200 other visitors. The visitor center is actually a gift shop but there are some interesting informational displays as you walk the short 800 feet from the parking lot to the site of the source.










The park is ADA compliant and I am happy to say that I saw several folks in wheelchairs and with braces and crutches all making their way down to the Mississippi’s source. That’s the first time in our travels besides Hot Springs National Park that that has been the case. 

Once you make it to the “spot” you must wait your turn to take a photo with the marker and then you have to try and get some photos as proof that you actuality did the crossing. There are two options - the slippery rocks or a log bridge. We chose the rocks. We even made Ricky join in on the crossing. 










After we did our photo op we drove to the closest picnic area in the park to have the lunch we packed. We’ve been packing lunches so we are assured we can find food. Sometimes we have not planned and in some of our remote explorations food is not that easy to come by. We were amazed that we were the only ones in a beautifully wooded picnic area. Only had a few bikers come by on the bike path while we had lunch. 

After lunch we decided to follow the “Great River Road” to the next spot on the Mississippi’s journey. We went to Bemidji, the home of Paul Bunyan and Babe his ox.  







This was the end of the Great River Road for this phase of our journey. We’ve travelled parts of the road through Illinois. Missouri, Iowa and finally Minnesota.  We hope to do the southern portions in Tennessee and Louisiana. There was terrible flooding in Louisiana when we came through earlier on our trip and the bridge closure over the Mississippi in Memphis was wreaking havoc with traffic so we opted to Do it on the way home.  

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