Lake Itasca lies in the remote northwestern quadrant of Minnesota and forms the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The lake and its state park are not on the way to anywhere; one must really want to go. The practical way to get there is automobile: Three and a half hours from Minneapolis-Saint Paul and four and a half hours from Winnipeg. All two-lane roads except for a few miles out of Minnesota’s capital. Carol and I made it a one-hour side trip from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, an already remote place and itself one hour west of Fargo, North Dakota. (Detroit Lakes is not at all related to the faraway Detroit, Michigan.)
Lake Itasca, Minnesota from the North Shore
The overcast, showery afternoon pairs with the arboreal setting of the glacial lake.
Raindrop Ripples on Lake Itasca
In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks playing the title character says, “My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” The same can be said of close-up photography.
Lake Itasca Becomes the Mississippi River
Lake Itasca on the right gently flows over rocks to become the Mississippi River on the left.
Mississippi River
The “Mighty Mississippi” about 100+ yards (100 meters) downstream from Lake Itasca. A distance of 2350 miles (3782 kilometers) lies between here and the Gulf of Mexico after an elevation drop of 1475 feet (450 meters).
Endnote
I always enjoy my encounters with the Mississippi River, and by now I have had dozens including when I lived in the state named after the river. I still remember my first sighting of the Mississippi: The morning of September 5, 1961. I was a fourteen-year-old boy on a train headed to school in Baltimore, Maryland from my home in Layton, Utah. The train crossed the Mississippi from Iowa to Illinois over the Sabula Railroad Bridge. I had never seen such a wide river.
Thank you for visiting Thecosmos.blog,
Michael DeCaria
Making visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen -Robert Bresson
I remember in elementary school seeing pictures of the headwaters of the Mississippi, and thinking how weird that such a mighty river started out as a mere trickle in Minnesota. It’s very cool that you actually got to go there. I love the picture of the people wading across the Mississippi River at its source.
Hi Alex, That’s wonderful you experienced wonder from pictures of the headwaters in elementary school. I felt a sacredness of place akin to hiking the ridgeline of the Wasatch Mountains or visiting aboard the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. I am grateful to the people wading across the river for their connecting us to the scene. Thank you very much for commenting. Best regards, Michael