Hiking at the headwaters of the Mississippi: October 11 2025

My husband I are enjoying a weekend with relatives in the town of Bemidji, Minnesota, where they live. It’s about a four-hour drive from where we live, near Minneapolis. We had a great day, with several nice walks in the beautiful fall weather with colorful trees all around. And we spent the afternoon at Itaska State Park, which is headwaters of the Mississippi River — running all the way from here (near the US and Canada border) to the Gulf of Mexico.

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The next picture is of me and my sister-in-law walking across a creek at the very origin of the great Mississippi.

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I love visiting special places like this. It feels like I’m experiencing something grand and magnificent.

We toured the visitor center and took a very nice hike on a woodsy trail.

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The visitor’s center had an amazing scale model of the entire journey of the river! I could not find a good angle, but I took a few other pictures.

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What’s cool about that old photo is that it shows the exact sign that visitors see today.

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That’s it for this blog post. Thank you for visiting!

Photo credits: All of the photos in this post were taken by me and belong to me, unless otherwise noted.

My bio: I am a fiction writer and photographer based in Minnesota. I have had a lifelong love of fiction writing. I am earned my MFA in writing from the University of New Hampshire. My short stories go de have appeared in a range of literary journals and anthologies, and my first short story collection, Somewhere in Minnesota is available on Amazon US as well as international Amazon sites., Barnes & Noble or from the publisher.