Bemidji MN

We have crossed the Mississippi River many times and I have never waded in it. So, we decided to head for the first city on the Mississippi, Bemidji MN.





On the road we go.

Into Wisconsin

across the bridge into Duluth MN.

Duluth is a major shipping port and one major cargo is wild rice from Minnesota. In this area, wild rice in on every restaurants menu.
I cooked some from scratch, it was delicious.
The best is local Indian wild rice and balsamic rice from India mixed.

and into Minnesota.

Into a camp site on the edge of Fox Lake.

Time for hot dogs and chili












Our view from our campsite was very nice

especially in the evening.

Our first trip was to Lake Itasca State Park.

visitors center













A few facts about the Mississippi River.

It get water drain off from 31 states or about 41% of the USA

A drop of rail into Lake Itasca would take about 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico

Mississippi comes from an Indian name meaning "river spread over a large area".

The Mississippi river is about 2552 miles long.













The first bridge over the Mississippi

Not very "mighty" here.

Click to enlarge.

sign placed here in 1934

Wading across the "Mighty" Mississippi

Where Lake Itasca spills over to form the Mississippi.

A nice place for a picnic









 Where the river flows into Lake Bemidji, the first town on the Mississippi.

Bemidji is also one of 9 cities that claim to be the birth place of Paul Bunyan.

Sorry for the pictures, but the whole lot was torn up and visitors were not allowed.

  We could only drive by.

Our last night there, we had a very unusual sunset.