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★★★ ITASCA STATE PARK (MN)

THURSDAY - Today we waited until the very last minute to give up our campsite, there is a noon check out time here in the Army Corps of Engineers park on Gull Lake.

We need to dump our tanks on the way out and fell in line with three other campers doing the same. That also worked to our advantage because we have a 4-hour window between check-out here and check-in at our next campsite which is only two hours away.

It just so happened the trailer in front of us had a huge back window and Tricia thought it was cool that we could see ROVER and THE POD in it's reflection.

We traveled past several smaller lakes on today's route, but Leech Lake was by far the largest, and creates the southwest boundry of the Leech Lake Indian Reservation.

It had some beautiful red trees along it's shoreline, but I'm not sure what kind of tree they are? I'm guessing they're probably Red Maples, but does anybody know for sure?

On a recent travel day we had to deal with getting by a huge piece of farm equipment slowly moving down the road. Well today it's a little bit different! Today we got held up by a large cabin cruiser on the highway.

I hope that white pickup truck moves out of the way or we're going to be sitting still for a while. I also hope that transport driver saw the road closed sign before he committed to the turn.

With no other mishaps on the road we arrived at Itasca State Park, established in 1891 it's Minnesota's oldest state park and today covers over 32,000 acres.

We'll be spending the Memorial Day Weekend here, along with all the local families who camp here all the time. Itasca is one of Minnesota's busiest state parks year round.

They've had a lot of rain around here over the last few days and the ground is quite soggy and the pot holes in the road are all full of water, but the birds love it!

SATURDAY - Having had a full day of rain yesterday, today we're going to get out and see something of this park other than just our campsite.

Itasca State Park can make a claim that nowhere else on earth can, because the headwaters of the 2340-mile long Mississippi River is found right here in this park.

HEADWATERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

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The Mary Gibbs Mississippi Headwaters Center has dozens of info boards about the river.
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It's only 900 feet from the parking lot to the headwaters, so we're already ⅓ of the way there.
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At this point you have an opportunity to walk across the bottom of the Mississippi River...
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...but this is the officially recognized location of the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
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Water to the left of the rocks is Lake Itasca, water to the right is the Mississippi River.
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Here I am casually, but precariously, balancing on a log straddling the Mississippi River.
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Here's Tricia doing the same thing. I told you I don't take good pictures!
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OOPs! I guess it wasn't so hard balancing on that "flat" log afterall.
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It's hard to believe that this Mississippi River is already 11-miles wide
just 100-miles downriver outside of Grand Rapids, MN.

Since we had already driven from the Bear Paw Campground where we are camped, up to the Mary Gibbs Mississippi Headwaters Center to visit the headwaters area of Lake Itasca, we decided to return to the campground via the drive around the 10-mile Scenic Drive on the west and south side of the park.

For most of the 10-miles the Scenic Drive is a 1-way road with a bike lane, so once you start the drive you're commited to finishing it.

You may have noticed at the bottom of this map there is a location tagged as the "Start of the Mississippi River". I'm not sure what the distinction between "start" and "headwaters" is, but I'm not hiking 3.8-miles from the roadway to just see where the "start" of the Mississippi River is.

10-MILE SCENIC DRIVE

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This was the beginning of the 1-way portion of the Scenic Drive.
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Preserving these old growth pine trees was one of the reasons Itasca State Park was created.
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Nicollet Creek feeds from Nicollet Lake into the West Arm of Lake Itasca.
Nicollet Lake is designated as the "Start of the MIssissippi River" on Google Maps.
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This is Elk Lake overflowing it's shorline...
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...to create Ga Gwa Dosh Creek which also flows into the West Arm of Lake Itasca.
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Elk Lake appears to be stocked with enough fish to warrant a boat ramp and dock.
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Here we are approaching Mary Lake near the southern end of the 1-way Scenic Drive.
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A couple of fishermen enjoying the holiday weekend on Mary Lake.
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The Douglas Lodge and Restaurant just opened yesterday for their 2024 season.
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We loved these wooden chairs we saw on the front porch of the lodge.
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Out the front door of the lodge you'll find a stone stairway down to East Arm of lake Itasca.
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Rooms in these fourplexes will set you back $105 a night (sleeps two).
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Don't tell me all that "stuff" grew on the roof since they closed in October last season.

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