You can walk across the Mississippi here without getting your knees wet. At the north end of Lake Itasca, in a state park of pine forest and small lakes in north-western Minnesota, the river starts as a gentle outflow about twenty feet wide over a line of stepping stones, and from this spot it begins a journey of roughly 2,340 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Visitors take the obligatory photograph on the rocks, and some cannot resist the wade, but the trickle looks nothing like the vast brown river that passes New Orleans.
The name has a story. In 1832 the explorer Henry Schoolcraft, guided by an Ojibwe man called Ozawindib, reached this lake, which he believed to be the source, and coined its name from the Latin words veritas caput, meaning true head. Native peoples had known the area long before, and the Ojibwe name for the river, Misi-ziibi, simply means great river. Itasca became Minnesota's first state park in 1891, protecting some of the last stands of old red and white pine in the region, and the forest is a good reason to linger. Walk a trail in the early morning and you may hear loons calling over the water.
The Great River Road starts here, marked by green signs with a pilot's wheel, and it follows the Mississippi downstream through five states or more. The first miles are gentle and rural, on two-lane roads through lakes, pine, farmland and small towns, with curves that are more rolling than technical. The surface is generally good, deer are the main danger at dusk, and mosquitoes and biting flies can be fierce in early summer. Because of that, many riders prefer September, when the leaves turn gold and the air is crisp.
Fuel is not available in the park itself, and the nearest larger town is Bemidji, about 35 kilometres away, famous for its statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Park Rapids and Bagley are smaller options. A state park vehicle permit is required to enter, and the summer season is busy on weekends. Bring a jacket, since nights are cool even in July.