Great River Road toward Home – Day 6

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Final day of trip – Great experience!

Great River Road toward Home – Day 6

After a night in Baxter MN, headed out on the Great River Road toward Home. It’s a great trip as all road trips usually turn out to be. Therefore, should be an easy trip but getting started a bit late (lazy this morning) so will likely run into Twin Cities rush hour traffic but I’m on the Great River Road toward Home. (I know, I’m repeating myself, I’m being redundant, I’m saying the same thing over and over!) For another experience, take a look at link to yesterday’s trip

Baxter to Camp Ripley and beyond

For viewers who were in the Minnesota National Guard, I’m sure you are very familiar with this!

Great River Road toward Home
Mississippi at Camp Ripley. Continues to get larger when moving south
Camp Ripley Minnesota
The main entrance to Camp Ripley
Mississippi Bottom lands Minnesota
Bottomlands along the river. Similar to the land further south in Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Camp Ripley through St. Cloud area  –  Great River Road toward Home

Great River Road toward Home
Picturesque view of the river through the trees. Actually, there is a dam about a mile ahead so this becomes a bit of a lake.
St. Cloud area for Mississippi
Sartell and Sauk Rapids area. This is looking downstream toward the Twin Cities and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico. Next picture is looking the other way, back toward Canada and toward the source at Lake Itasca.
St. Cloud Area
Bridge and Dam between Sartell and Sauk Rapids

Coming into outer Twin Cities

Twin Cities Mississippi River
Looking back up river as entering Twin Cities metro area
Down River by Champlain MN
Same place but a view down river.

Here is just a quick video showing the flow of the Mississippi. Because the river doesn’t begin at high altitudes the flow is relatively slow. Therefore, theoretically, if a drop of water lands exactly by the rocks where the (link) river flows from Lake Itasca, it will take 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico.

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Twin Cities Great River Road
Reached the point where I left to go south on the Great River Road in March 2017.

Link to March 2017 where I started.

End of norther Minnesota Great River Road trip
The bridge is on Interstate 694, part of the beltline highway around the Twin Cities. Consequently, I’m watching it as I’ll be going that way in the next 30 minutes or so.
River continues downstream
Looking down river from the same viewpoint as the previous picture

…and here is a link to a boat going upstream from the same vantage point.

Here is a link to a video of the “last mile” from the Interstate to a view of the river.

In summary, the Northern Minnesota section of the Great River Road will only take two days. First, I stopped and saw attractions along the way. Second, I went to see my grandson in Bismarck. Third, I only came back as far as Fargo to see another grandson at the end of the day. Fourth, I took the side trip to Canada, International Falls, and Voyageurs National Park. 

Great to have completed the northern end of the Great River Road. Consequently, I’m working on how I can do the section from Natchez to the Gulf of Mexico.

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I’m glad you were able to join me on this trip and hope you will do so on my next trip as well. 

The Driveby Tourist