Motor Touring the Great River Road

We departed Buffalo Lake on Sunday and headed north to Blackhawk Park, a COE park about 25 miles south of La Crosse WI, about a three hour drive.  On our way through La Crosse we stopped and did a little shopping.  We stopped at Sam's Club for a few groceries and Dorcas bought an iPad Air 2 at Best Buy.  She had been considering an upgraded iPhone and/or a new computer and couldn't make a decision.  Ultimately, she decided this was a good compromise.  With this devise she could still be happy with her old 3G 4S iPhone, and could also benefit from the the bigger screen that a small PC or MacBook might offer.  I think it was a practical choice.

We arrived at Blackhawk Park mid-afternoon on Sunday and set up for our 5-night stay.  It is a nice park with large spacious sites and 50 amp service.  The park is on the banks of the Mississippi River with Iowa just across the river.  We watched recreational vessels and commercial barge traffic plying the waters.  It seems white 5th-wheel trailers were the RV of choice in this park.  Only a few, including us, were camping in something else.

A barge on the river

Our site at Blackhawk Park

See all the white trailers

Cool rig!  Our neighbor for 1 night.

We are camped on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River and on the "Great River Road".  The Great River Road is not a single road, but a series of state and local roads generally following the course of the Mississippi River through 10 states from Minnesota to Louisiana.  So we had to do an auto tour of the Great River road in this area.  We left our camp and traveled south on WI 35 and crossed into Iowa at Lansing IA.  We then turned north driving primarily on IA 26.  We stopped at practically every overlook and point of interest.  The locks and dams were very interesting.  Most of the area we passed through was in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, and there were many overlooks at refuge viewing sites.  We crossed back into Wisconsin at Winona MN and returned to camp on the east bank.

The Mississippi River bridge to Lansing Iowa

The Mississippi river bridge at Lansing Iowa

North into Minnesota

Minnesota loves canoes.  And we're not anywhere near Ely yet!

Historical monument marking the Iowa-Minnesota state line, 200 yards from the river

A view into the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge

The 9-foot Channel Navigation Project was built from 1930 to 1940 by the USA Corps of Engineers.  It formed a 9-deep channel for dependable navigation on the Upper Mississippi River, primarily by raising the river level using a series of dams.  Locks were necessary to enable river traffic to get around the dams.  Today, the Upper Mississippi River – Illinois Waterway Navigation System includes 37 locks and 1,200 miles of nine-foot deep navigable waterway in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin.

A barge in the lock.  Note that the barge extends past the gates of the lock.

Even the barge companies like canoes!

This photo shows the corners of four barge units cabled together

The locks are 700' long and the 15-barge rafts are 1200' long.  Do the math.  How does that work?  Well, the tug would place the raft into the lock and disconnect the forward 9 barges, back out of the lock while those locked through.  Then the tug and the remaining  6 barges would lock through.  We never watched the whole process, but it seemed complicated.  Transportation by barge is very economical.  A barge is able to carry one ton of cargo 576 miles per gallon of fuel compared to only 155 miles for a truck and 413 miles by rail.  A 15-barge raft can haul as much material as 870 semi-trailers.

Most rafts are three barges wide and 5 barges long, about 1200' total length

Lock and Dam No. 7

For canoe people Winona MN is famous as the home of We-No-Nah Canoes

We particularly wanted to visit the We-no-nah Canoe factory.  Unfortunately they did not give factory tours.   It was not a very impressive building.  Like most canoe companies, they now produce more kayaks than canoes.  I have always claimed that Minnesota was the last bastion of the traditional open canoe.   Maybe not so much.

The We-no-nah Canoe factory

Our Great River Road tour lasted all day and covered about 175 miles.  Thankfully we arrived back at camp in time for happy hour.  In 2007 we visited New Mexico and started drinking margaritas with nachos every evening.  It was appropriate for the region, and a tradition was born.  Life is still good.

Nachos and a margarita.   A typical happy hour serving.