SotaMINIs Fall Colors Trip to Itasca State Park
On October 5-7, I and several members of the SotaMINIs club took a trip to Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota about a 5 hour drive from Minneapolis/St. Paul. This park is where the headwaters of the Mississippi river are. The purpose of the trip was to enjoy the beauty of the Northwoods in fall, have some fellowship with our fellow MINI owners, AND to have some really fun driving experiences with our MINIs.
I have posted 87 of the 165 photos I took while on this trip. I tried to capture the beauty of the trip, capture a bit of a history lesson, and of course photos of the MINIS in action. I hope you enjoy this photo project.
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Starting Out: Some of us met at the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in Maple Grove on Friday afternoon so that we could do a MINI caravan to Itasca. Others drove solo and met us there. Here are photos from the Krispy Kreme meeting area.
First Pit Stop: We made a stop at Clearwater Truck Plaza to get some coffee and to drain earlier coffee. The MINIs roaring up turned a few eyes.
Itasca State Park Hostel: After a long drive and a great dinner at a local restaurant and tavern, we proceeded to Itasca State park. We arrived at the Hostel (Kind of like indoor camping) about 10:30 PM. I took most of these photos of the Hostel and surrounding area on Saturday morning after a good nights sleep and an outstanding breakfast. There was also a large Girl Scout group staying at the Hostel in another bunkroom area. We all had to share the same kitchen, but it worked out fine.
Off to the Visitors Center: On Saturday, the first order of business was to go directly to the visitors center and purchase our State Park window stickers. The gatekeepers had already left for the night by the time we got there on Friday night. Most of these photos are of the cars. The one of MINIBOYs bumper shows how we were picking up leaves on the road runs. There is also a photo of the inside of the fairly new visitors center. The last photo shows where we stopped for gas, liquor, snacks, coffee. I don't know if any of us went into the church that was right there next to the liquor store.
Headwaters of the Mississippi River: These photos were all taken at the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Most of us were able to walk across the Mississippi River at its source without getting our feet wet. There were a couple of wet mishaps though. From this humble beginning, the river flows southward all the way to the Gulf of Mexico where it is more that a mile wide near New Orleans. This whole series of photos does not include any of our MINIs. It was foggy and cool this morning affecting the contrast in some of the photos. When we arrived here we were swamped by enthusiastic kids who wanted there photos taken with the MINIs. I did take the photos and sent them to their mom, but decided it would be inappropriate to post them on the website (they were so cute too and we brought some real fun into their day).
Big Pine Trees: Our next stops were to view the biggest white pine and the biggest red pine in Itasca Park. We had some great rally driving on the one way road and kicked up lots of leaves while doing it. Then we hiked into the places where the big pines were. I also took photos of other scenery of interest on the hikes. The tallest white pine was so tall I could not get it all in one photo, so the photo shown here is a grafting together of two photos to get the entire tree into one photo.
The Fire Tower: Next stop was at the trail leading to a tall fire tower. In Minnesota, there are many fire towers used by Park Rangers and the Department of Natural Resources. The are or were used for spotting forest fires. Most fire spotting is done from the air now. Anyway, it was a very long UPHILL trek to get to see this fire tower. Some of our group still had the energy to actually climb all the way to the top of the fire tower. Most of us just rested and waited while they got the pent up energy out of their system. The trail had some other interesting things to photograph. I even found a rock with a 1966 US Geological Survey Marker imbedded in it.
LUNCH: We are in a 38,000 acre State Park and we are eating lunch in a parking lot out of out tailgates. It was a great lunch including several kinds of homemade bread for the sandwiches. Why didn't we find picnic tables. Maybe we were too hungry to look for tables or we love our MINIs so much that we included them in our lunch (I'll never tell). I was a nice day and a colorful spot to rest up a little.
The Bog Walk: After lunch we took a long trek on what is called the Bog Walk. The trail goes through a bog (Minnesotan for Swamp) around a beautiful part of the lake and up to an old cabin built with very huge logs. Three logs to from ground to roof.
Saturday Rally Drive: On Saturday afternoon we went on a drive outside the park on a road that had lots of hills and curves and very little traffic. It was very scenic, but I didn't take many photos because we were driving to aggressively to get good photos. It was about midpoint in this drive where I parted company with the SotaMINIs group. They had plans for a bonfire supper and another Sunday morning drive, but I had to return to St. Paul.
Back to St. Paul: We had traveled several miles west on the rally road when I departed from the group. I dug out my Minnesota map and planned a different route home than the way we came. I took some additional photos along the way.
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