Itasca State Park, Minnesota

9/11/2012 Tuesday. Left Amnicon State Park east of Superior, WI.  Stopped at the Sunnybrook Park Campground in Wadena, MN.  We drove 176.7 miles today. Campsite setting was nice but the water registered about 290 ppm, so we did not hook up.  Bathrooms were old but clean.  When we arrived Jeanne spotted a very large hawk harassing a squirrel.  Got some pictures of it sitting in a tree.  It flew right past Ed at ground level. Unique to see a hawk this close.  We had a light dinner, cheese and crackers, smoked salmon, cottage cheese and mandarin oranges, i.e., a hodgepodge. 

9/12/2012. Up at 7:30 CT.  Ed was up all night counting trains, there were 6 through the night, so he was a little grumpy.  We left the Sunnybrook Park CG and drove to Itasca State Park up US71, about one hour, 15 minutes.  Itasca State Park is located on Lake Itasca and is the official location of the Mississippi headwaters. The park was established in 1891 and is Minnesota's oldest state park. Today, the park totals more than 32,000 acres and includes more than 100 lakes. Today, we walked across the mighty Mississippi as it starts its winding journey 2,552 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Pretty exciting.

 That's us.  Walking across the mighty Mississippi!  It doesn't look so mighty right here.

Thank goodness we brought our wadding shoes.  What a hoot!  Jeanne with the help of some volunteers got pictures of the experience.  This is a wonderful park, one of the nicest we have visited, well worth a much longer visit.  We took a wrong turn out of the park and ended up having to detach the car at a dead end.  Such are the things that make life interesting!  We returned on US71 to Park Rapids continued to US 34 and then US 10 to the Buffalo River State Park CG, still in MN. We arrived at 4:30. $25 per night with electric.  Managed to get a satellite signal and some TV for the first time in more than a week.  The campground was small, mostly shady.  We would use this campground again, if in the area.