Baudette, Bemidji and Big Falls MN

Our stops across the state of Minnesota averaged about 3 days each. Some places were more interesting than others and so generated more chances for pictures and stories. The constant deluges of rain also cramped the touring activities significantly. The three titled towns are all very small communities, rather isolated and somewhat ordinary. 

Baudette is along the Rainey River which forms the Canada-United States border in this part of the state. We stayed in a town park campground which was very nice but we got the only site with a sewer connection! A short walk from our spot and down the boat launch ramp took us to the Rainey River, across which we could see Canada.

Midway across the river is the International Border.

Baudette claims to be the Walleye Capital of the World and Willie the Walleye is its town symbol.

Nearby is Lake of the Woods, a very large freshwater lake that extends into Canada. It has about 65,000 miles of shoreline and is famed for fishing for Walleye, Saugar and Northern Pike. Minnesota's Zipple Bay State Park is a short drive from Baudette and promised to be a delightful drive.

I suppose if you are a fisherman, snomobile or ice-fishing fan the place has possibilities! However it is otherwise pretty rustic and wild. There are no developed facilities other than parking areas for the "beach". I had to get out of the car to register for a day pass to enter and nearly got devoured by the local mosquito population.  A couple of photos will give you and idea of what we encountered.

The forest at Zipple Bay consists of cluster birch trees such as these. Camping areas are no more than cleared spaces for tents or possibly popup campers.

 

Pretty, but rough.

But Baudette was not without its rewards as we spotted and photographed a Cedar Waxwing for the first time in our travels.  It was in a small tree just outside our window and the results are below.

The Cedar Waxwing is, in my estimation, one of the prettiest of the North American field birds.

With its back turned, we can see the delicate brilliance of the wingtips and end of the tail.

Next up is Bemidji the largest commercial center between Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Duluth, Minnesota. Bemidji houses many Native American services, including the Indian Health Service. The city is the central hub of the Red Lake Indian Reservation, White Earth Indian Reservation and the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. Bemidji lies on the southwest shore of Lake Bemidji, the northernmost lake feeding the Mississippi River and, as such, is deemed "the first city on the Mississippi." 

Its Visitor Center is the site of the statues of Paul Bunyan and His Blue Ox Babe the American Logging folk hero. Kodak has claimed these figures to be the second most photographed statues in the U.S., second only to Mount Rushmore.  Add one more to the total photos taken...

Notice the puddle on the ground. It had been raining as it was most of the time we were in Minnesota.

While we were in the Bemidji area we parked at Fox Lake Campground a few miles north of town. We saw, for the first time, White Pelicans on the lake. In all our trips to the Gulf of Mexico and Florida we have never seen a White Pelican. But we travel all the way to Minnesota and there they are!

Bemidji is about 30 miles from Lake Itasca State Park which is recognized as the Headwaters of the Mississippi River. We took a day trip there to see for ourselves. The pictures and captions will tell the story.

Most people imagine the "mighty Mississippi" as being a mile or more wide, but here it is not more than ten feet wide!

The outflow of Lake Itasca, to the left, is the source for the river.

Here are the vital statistics of this spot.

We learned from a historical plaque, the search for the headwaters ended when Ojibwe chief Ozawindib guided Henry Rowe Schoolcraft to Lake Itasca in 1832.  In their logs the group wrote they were sorely tried by "voracious, long-billed, and dyspeptic musketoes". So I am not the first to complain about the mosquitos.

Somebody offered to take a picture of these two old birds so we let them!

And so on to Big Falls which was a last minute change in our plans. We had a reservation in Ranier MN to follow our stay in Baudette, but we got a call from the owner inquiring if we were still coming two days before we were to arrive. This place is really an Inn with 4 RV parking spaces and is also situated on the Canadian border. Apparently one of the campers became ill and could not leave to make our site available. So we were able to make a couple of quick changes and drove, through more rain, to the small town of Big Falls MN on the Bigfork River. We were able to stay at another town park campground right at the Big Falls.  Remember all the rain I have been bitching about?  Well it all apparently was rushing down the Bigfork River and the Falls were truly big! I found a photo of the spot with normal water flow to compare to what we parked beside for the night!

Normal

Not so normal.

After we drove farther on our trip we heard the news reports of flooding on the Rainey river, Lake Rainey and in the town of Ranier so I guess we were lucky to have avoided the aftermath of so much rain.

The second change we made was to drive from Big Falls to Cooke MN near Lake Vermilion. It would allow us to visit the town of Ely MN well north of the Iron Range of Minnesota and home of the International Wolf Center and the North American Bear Center.
You can read about that stop in the next installment.