Minnesota • Wisconsin • Iowa • Illinois • Missouri • Ken-tucky • Arkansas • Tennessee • Mississippi • Louisiana
The Fascination of the Mississippi
The Mississippi River is by far the most water-rich river in North America, even though the Missouri River beats it by a few hundred miles in terms of length. We had been considering to following the great river from its source to the Gulf of Mexico for a long time. Once the plans were in place, we were hit by COVID-19, and the trip was canceled.
Five years later, our dream has become reality. We are standing at the Mississippi Headwaters in Lake Itasca State Park, while in front of us, the Mississippi bubbles as a small stream that can be easily crossed on the first and only (wooden) bridge. This is also where the Great River Road begins, 2,340 miles long and designated as a National Scenic Byway in 10 states.
The first town at the river is Bemidji; downtown is dedicated to the giant Paul Bunyan. The following towns are small, but in Grand Rapids, the river is already quite wide. In Crow Wing State Park, the Crow Wing River, the first major river, flows into the Mississippi; many more will follow, as around 40 percent of the continental area of the USA drains into the Mississippi.
Via Little Falls, where Charles A. Lindbergh once lived, and Saint Cloud with its beautiful Munsinger and Clemens Gardens, we reach the Twin Cities. In St. Paul, capital of Minnesota, only the State Capitol is attractive; Minneapolis, on the other hand, proves to be a modern city with many interesting buildings and an outstanding sculpture park. A detour to the Mall of America, the largest shopping center in the Western Hemisphere, rounds off our stay.
We continue our journey by strolling through Hastings with its beautiful river park, from where we can watch the modern bridge. We explore the small old town and make a detour to a waterfall. From Memorial Park at Sorin’s Bluff, you have a good view of Red Wing and the Mississippi River. We change the banks and drive through the small towns of Wisconsin until we finally cross the river again and spend the night in Winona. Then we continue on to La Crosse, home to one of the rare roadside attractions, World’s Largest Six Pack.
The Effigy Mounds in Iowa are the first prehistoric mounds we see on this trip. Pikes Peak State Park offers a magnificent view of a water landscape formed by the confluence of the Wisconsin River and the Mississippi Rivers. The next major city is Dubuque, where the Fenelon Elevator, the world’s shortest and steepest cog railway, climbs the small mountain. The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium is also located here, along a modern promenade.
While we’ve mostly been alone on the Great River Road so far, this changes in Galena, Illinois. The small town has managed to turn its historic main street, lined with thriving little shops, into a tourist attraction. We stroll down Main Street and enjoy the view from Grant Park, named after the former Union general. In Le Claire, we stop at the Buffalo Bill Museum and watch the sun set; it’s the only city we’ve already visited on a previous trip. Afterwards, we settle in Moline, part of the Quad Cities – four cities in two states in one network. John Deere, worldwide manufacturer of agricultural machines, has its headquarters in Moline and presents its history in a nice visitor pavilion.
We stay in Iowa and visit Snake Alley in Burlington, reminiscent of San Francisco’s famous Lombard Street. The temple in Nauvoo, like all Mormon churches, is huge; Quincy only serves as a place to sleep. In Hannibal, Missouri, everything is about Mark Twain and his stories of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Diner, lighthouse, riverboat, and, of course, the Boyhood Home – everything bears his name.
In the following hours, we travel almost alone through the lonely stretch of land between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. In the afternoon, after short detours to Pere Marquette State Park and the towns of Grafton and Elsah, we finally reach the city of Alton, where the National Great Rivers Museum vividly illustrates the great importance of the Mississippi as a national waterway.
Shortly after Alton, the Missouri River, the largest tributary, flows into the Mississippi River, increasing the water volume by more than 40 percent. We visit the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, where Great River Road and Route 66 intersect, and the Cahokia Mounds, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Then we reach St. Louis, former gateway to the West, whose landmark is the Gateway Arch, visible from afar. We take two days to explore a city that boasts the Citygarden Sculpture Park, a wonderful park in the heart of downtown, but is struggling with enormous vacancy rates and decay in other neighborhoods. Our visit ends with a ride on the St. Louis Ferris wheel.
We begin the second half of our tour with a visit to Kaskaskia, the only city in Illinois west of the Mississippi, and Chester, where everything is about Popeye the sailor. Trail of Tears State Park once again features a great observation deck overlooking the river; Cape Girardeau, which its charming downtown, serves as our overnight base.
In Cairo, the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi, more than doubling its water volume. A day’s journey zigzags through Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and finally Tennessee, where we check into an apartment in Memphis that evening. Here, everything is just about music: blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, the famous Sun Studios, and Beale Street, where the city comes alive, especially in the evening.
Of course, you can’t leave Memphis without paying a visit to Graceland, the former home of Elvis Presley. We cross the state line into Mississippi, stop by the Gateway to the Blues Museum in Tunica, take a detour to Helena to the Delta Cultural Center, and follow the Blues Trail on Highway 61 south through Clarksdale and Greenville. Tonight, we’re staying in a small cottage right on Lake Chicot.
The next day, we briefly leave the Great River Road and drive to Indianola, where we find the best coffee of the trip and the B.B. King Museum & Delta Interpretive Center. In Leland, we visit the birthplace of Kermit the Frog. Then we head straight to Vicksburg, where the huge National Military Park commemorates the Battle of Vicksburg in the American Civil War. This time, we spend the night in a historic mansion.
From Vicksburg, we make a second detour, this time to Jackson, the capital of the state of Mississippi. As always, the State Capitol is impressive, while the rest of downtown is not very interesting. The next day, we drive for quite a while on the Natchez Trace Parkway, a scenic route maintained by the National Park Service. In Natchez, known for its historic plantation houses, we reach the Mississippi River again. For the last time, we cross a state line; Louisiana is the tenth and final state on our journey south. Our destination is the capital, Baton Rouge; this French-influenced city is perfect for strolling around and boasts the tallest State Capitol in the US.
We cross the Atchafalaya Basin on an 18 miles long bridge and then drive to St. Martinville, where everything revolves around Evangeline, the famous poem by Henry W. Longfellow. From here, we head to Avery Island, a small island where the Tabasco company produces its hot sauce. On a tour, you can follow the production process from the chili pepper to storage and blending to sale. Of course, a trip along the Mississippi also includes a visit to a plantation. We chose Oak Alley Plantation, right on the river – small but beautiful.
We could actually end our trip here in New Orleans, but first we have to reach the end of the Great River Road. This is located in a tiny fishing village called Venice, about 90 miles further south, where the road ends at a sign covered with thousands of stickers. The only way to continue into the vast Mississippi Delta is by boat.
We spend the last three days of this exciting trip in New Orleans, the city of jazz and Louis Armstrong. We stroll through the quite different neighborhoods of the historic French Quarter, the wealthy Garden District, and the colorful St. Roch District, and are delighted to see that the city is back on the upswing after the devastating disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This is where our long journey on the Great River Road comes to an end.
Route Description
| Tag/Day | Von/From | Nach/To | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Minneapolis Airport (MSP) | Bemidji | 250 m / 400 km |
| 02 | Bemidji | Brainerd | 270 m / 435 km |
| 03 | Brainerd | Saint Paul | 150 m / 240 km |
| 04 | Saint Paul | Saint Paul | 000 m / 000 km |
| 05 | Saint Paul | Saint Paul | 035 m / 055 km |
| 06 | Saint Paul | Winona | 185 m / 300 km |
| 07 | Winona | Dubuque | 170 m / 275 km |
| 08 | Dubuque | Moline | 120 m / 195 km |
| 09 | Moline | Moline | 040 m / 065 km |
| 10 | Moline | Quincy | 190 m / 305 km |
| 11 | Quincy | Alton | 160 m / 260 km |
| 12 | Alton | St. Louis | 095 m / 150 km |
| 13 | St. Louis | St. Louis | 060 m / 095 km |
| 14 | St. Louis | St. Louis | 020 m / 030 km |
| 15 | St. Louis | Cape Girardeau | 180 m / 290 km |
| 16 | Cape Girardeau | Memphis | 255 m / 410 km |
| 17 | Memphis | Memphis | 020 m / 030 km |
| 18 | Memphis | Lake Village | 220 m / 355 km |
| 19 | Lake Village | Vicksburg | 170 m / 275 km |
| 20 | Vicksburg | Vicksburg | 100 m / 160 km |
| 21 | Vicksburg | Baton Rouge | 210 m / 340 km |
| 22 | Baton Rouge | Donaldsonville | 195 m / 315 km |
| 23 | Donaldsonville | New Orleans | 080 m / 130 km |
| 24 | New Orleans | New Orleans | 165 m / 265 km |
| 25 | New Orleans | New Orleans | 000 m / 000 km |
| 26 | New Orleans | New Orleans | 000 m / 000 km |
| 27 | New Orleans | New Orleans Airport (MSY) | 000 m / 000 km |
| Total | 3.340 m / 5.375 km |
The Journey in Pictures
Die erste Brücke über den Mississippi und die einzige Holzbrücke überhaupt
Bemidji – “First City on the Mississippi”
Nach 400 km ist aus dem kleinen Bach ein breiter Fluss geworden
Hier fließt der große Fluss noch durch unberührte Landschaft
Wunderschöner Stadtpark am Ufer des Mississippi
“Riverside Eagle” und Mississippi-Kreuzfahrtschiff “American Serenade”
Blick auf die Mündung des Wisconsin River in den Mississippi
Touristen-Städtchen am Mississippi – eine Seltenheit
Der Marktführer für Landmaschinen in den USA hat in Moline seine Konzernzentrale
Wie die berühmte Lombard Street in San Francisco, allerdings nur für Fußgänger
Im Jahr 1846 der zweite Tempel, den die Mormonen bauten; heute sind es weltweit über 200, Tendenz steigend
Die Brücken werden länger und mächtiger
In Hannibal dreht sich alles um Mark Twain und seine Erzählungen
Eine Kleinstadt als Museumsdorf
Prähistorische Hügel aus einer Zeit lange vor Christopher Columbus – und heute UNESCO-Welterbe
Das Wahrzeichen der Stadt symbolisiert deren ehemaligen Status als “Tor zum Westen”
Britische und amerikanische Flagge friedlich vereint
Einer der vielen Aussichtspunkte auf den “Bluffs” entlang des Mississippi
Das Kreuz ist mal eben 29 Meter hoch
Blues, Jazz, Rock’n Roll – in dieser Stadt ist fast jede Musikrichtung zu Hause
Eine von unzähligen Erinnerungsstätten an US-61, dem Blues-Highway
Das Museum ist dem König des Blues gewidmet
1.400 Monumente, Markierungen und Gedenktafeln an einem 26 km langen Rundkurs durch den Park
Es war einmal ein feines Herrenhaus…
Das höchste State Capitol in den USA
In der kleinen Stadt dreht sich alles um “Evangeline”, das berühmte Gedicht von Henry W. Longfellow
255 Millionen Flaschen der scharfen Sauce werden jährlich auf Avery Island hergestellt
Eine der rund 15 erhaltenen Plantagen (von ehemals 350) an der “Plantation Alley” zwischen Baton Rouge und New Orleans
Wo die wohlhabenden Leute der Stadt wohnen
Im Mississippi-Delta endet die Great River Road nach 3.765 km im Niemandsland