Headwaters of the Mississippi River

We just had to take the drive to Lake Itasca, about 94 miles south and east of us, to see where the Mississippi River starts.  Again, traveled along US Route 2 east bound, said we were practicing for our drive on Monday when we move to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota (near Voyagers National Park).  About 20 miles into our journey we noticed, and smelled, smoke.  From where?  There are no forests around here for many miles.  Visibility dropped, did not get any better.

We had purchased a state park pass for Minnesota when we checked into the campground we are currently in and it is a good thing we had it, when we pulled into Lake Itasca State Park, the line up to get in was quite long, we just breezed by with our sticker proudly displayed in the window.

Remember what this photo looks like..........

Stopped at the Mary Gibbs Visitor's Center to see and walk the trail to the headwaters.  Took a picture of a picture of what we were going to see, and it's a good thing.  There were so many people - could not have duplicated the photo if we waited all day.  As it was, was entertaining.  In the parking lot we saw cars with out-of-state plates and wondered if they were camping at the park as well, or like us, drove from somewhere else to see this natural wonder.

I don't think we will miss where the headwaters are....

Lovely trail but the mosquitos were bad 

Rut-roh - I think we found it

People wading, swimming, relaxing in the headwaters

The Missouri/Mississippi Rivers rank the 4th largest in length in the world, the 3 others are Amazon, Nile and Yangtze.  And we both learned that the Ohio River which feeds into the Mississippi in Cairo, Illinois, has more volume of water than the Mississippi!  Huh!

Remember that photo from before?? 

Walked around the lake for a bit - got chewed up by bugs

Looking across Lake Itasca to the headwaters we were just at

Crazy the amount of people

We walked the trail around the lake for a tidge - got eaten up by the mosquitoes.  Came back and walked the Mississippi where the kids were swimming along the channel - reminded us of being on a lazy river in one of the water parks we have visited.  Kids were loving it.

Kids swimming/lazy river of headwaters of Mississippi

Bridge where you can watch them float by

More coming, Lake Itasca peaking out above

So, we have seen the headwaters of the Missouri (in Lemhi Pass, Montana), the Mississippi in Lake Itasca, Minnesota; the headwaters of the Arkansas River near Buena Vista, Colorado; Yellowstone River - the longest free-flowing river in the lower 48 states located in Yellowstone National Park; the headwaters of the Rio Grande near South Fork, Colorado; and where the Ohio River begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

I like this photo better

Drove the Wilderness road around the lake, very scenic

When we got back to the RV, we googled about fires and there is a air-quality warning going on for much of Minnesota through this evening due to wildfires in Manitoba and Ontario, the southerly flow of the smoke is impacting this area.

We head out tomorrow morning to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, to a town called Kabetogama. Not far from International Falls and Voyagers National Park.  To hopefully do some kayaking, boating, hear loons calling, just being in that area.