Lake Itasca and the Mississippi River Head Waters

After a couple days on the North Shore of Minnesota, we drove west to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Northern Minnesota is a very untouched and remote place. Lots of big forests and lakes.


Here's Spencer showing us his forestry knowledge and highlighting that a big tree used to be here. Now, it's the leftovers of a ground-up stump.

Here are the three boys and Jen getting into the headwaters of the Mississippi. Jen and Astro waded across the river. The boys just threw rocks. Here are some shots midway through the river in Memphis.

Here's the river - not very wide here.

Here's Daddy telling the boys about the river. They crossed it a couple times along the way in Minnesota and it wasn't very wide, especially in a little town south of Grand Rapids. It was wider in St. Cloud. They've walked along it and across it in Minneapolis, downtown and at Minnehaha Park. They also walked along it in St. Paul. On Memorial Day, the boys drove along the river from Lacrosse to Red Wing past Lake Pepin. The boys then heard about Daddy being born along the river in St. Louis. How come every city along the river is named after a Saint? The boys also heard a story about Daddy being raised in Freeport, not too far from the river and Dubuque.

Spencer is showing the large scale map of the river. He's pointing to the Gulf of Mexico and showing us where the oil is leaking.

Here's another part of the map, near where Iowa meets Wisconsin and Illinois.

Here's the boys at the sign at the head of the river.