Photo by Adam Hammer A fisherman floats on the Mississippi River near the No. 7 Dam.

The Mississippi River curls through the deciduous hardwood forests that cover the hills left by glacial drift in southeastern Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin. Alongside it is the Great River Road, following the river via its floodplain or cutting into the hillsides.

Spendid autumn foliage colors bluffs that rise up high, like a room of schoolchildren asking you to call on them. The trees say, “Look at me!” The wide river affords motorists additional views of those bluffs. Spectators find many more sight lines along the Mississippi than inland. That is why people come from far and wide to drive the Great River Road in Minnesota every fall.

They eagerly wait for the leaves to turn, and then, during a short timeframe that sometimes is made shorter by heavy winds, folks dash out in couples, foursomes or entire families to the automobile. This is best as a group experience. Some drive in compact cars or roadsters but this is not just a drive. It is a tour. The ideal car is the classic sedan — the older, the better. How about a 1939 Buick Roadmaster? There is plenty of space to bend your neck and gape out the windows.

Photographer Bryan Clapper and I didn’t have one of those. We had Bryan’s car, a 2001 Toyota Celica. It is designed for forward motion, not so much for swiveling heads. To be sure, Bryan now drives an Audi.

We started in New Albin, Iowa, a lonely dot on the far northeast corner of the Iowa map. It is a rustic place with great potential. I thought of how Ireland for centuries was forgotten and forlorn by Europeans, but today it is a technology center, discovered by thinking people who love local flavors and rural charm. I hoped the same economic fortune someday can preserve New Albin’s rural charm. It needs to be discovered.

We headed north on Iowa Highway 26, which becomes Minnesota Highway 26 at the border immediately north of New Albin. The Great River Road is about the journey but it also about stopping. It begs you to pull over, whether it is for one of the roadside vistas or for a nice fishing point.

Photo by Bryan Clapper The towboat Phyllis pulls into lock & Dam No. 7 near La Crescent. Visitors to the Travel Information Center along Interstate 90 can watch boats move through the lock.

Bryan and I visited Millstone Landing, a boat launch that offers campsites, picnic tables and restrooms just north of the Iowa-Minnesota border. It is connected to a long series of calm backwater channels and great for fishing.

Reno has no casinos, but it has nice views of the river that Bryan was looking to photograph. The city’s homes are built into the side of a bluff, giving each a view. We visited the Reno Horse Campground, part of the Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest. It has real camping — out of the way, not well-known, truly dark at night, not many frills except peace and quiet. On top of that, it’s a great place to begin a horseback ride. Campsites cost $11, $15 with horses.

Reno Landing gives residents river access. Bryan and I walked out on a long pier and watched many pelicans in a flock and witnessed a great blue heron soar. Beautiful.

The folks in Brownsville have a good thing going and they know it. The town only has 500 people and hardly six streets, but the three places to eat are also places to drink. It looks like folks here like to have fun. The Saxon Hall Tavern looked old and intimidating, with thick, brown, wooden walls seemingly shipped over from Saxony itself. Top of the Rock Bar & Grill offers long-distance views, and the Shellhorn Bar & Grill entices road-weary travelers to get off the highway. If you ride a motorcycle, this is a good stop.

The Church of St. Patrick’s, too, was worth gazing upon. Too bad we didn’t have time to stay. This town would be fun to visit for a weekend and soak up Brownsville’s riverfront culture. A person could stay at campgrounds at the Wildcat Landing.

We noticed sand dunes along the shore, and at one point there was a houseboat parked on the dunes. A man and a woman were sitting atop one of the dunes and watching the world go by. It would be something wonderful to float the Mississippi for, oh, a month.

La Crescent was the subject of much construction on the day Bryan and I came whizzing through. We visited Bauer’s Market and found that La Crescent is the apple capital of Minnesota. I find fruit always tastes better the closer I am to the place it was grown. I ate a juicy, sweet honeycrisp apple.

Lock & Dam No. 7 is just north of Highway 26’s interchange with Interstate 90, and it has a visitor center geared to people coming into Minnesota. We watched the towboat Phyllis push into the lock a barge loaded with some kind of rock. An old-timer and I speculated whether it was taconite, iron ore, aggregate or something else altogether.

A sign with a timeline explained how people and goods moved up and down the Mighty Miss. Before 1800, canoes were the leading boat. From 1805 to 1840 keeboats, from 1840 to 1900 ferries, from 1823 to 1900 steamboats and from 1900 to the present barges with towboats.
We climbed aboard I-90, skipped a tiny town called Dresbach and headed to the exit for U.S. Highway 61, where we entered the town of Dakota, which has the Thin Bluffs Tavern and a campground.

There is a lesson to be learned in these parts. Some scenic overlooks aren’t scenic or, for that matter, don’t overlook anything. Some scenic routes aren’t that scenic, either. But Winona County Road 3 indeed is scenic, and its crown jewel, the 3,000-acre Great River Bluffs State Park, has true scenic overlooks. The desire of Minnesota vacation planners to look toward the north end of the map of the state perhaps keeps some of them from going to a moving experience with nature found right in Southern Minnesota. If ever you plan to tour the Great River Road and need a home base for a week, this state park is my recommendation.

From here, it was through little LaMoille and on to Homer, an apt name for our odyssey. Homer features the Historic Bunnell Home, a Gothic Revival house built in the 1850s by pioneers who were given permission by Dakotah Chief Wapasha to build there. It is maintained today by the Winona County Historical Society.

Back on U.S. 61 heading north, we passed a big party place called the Big River Room, which touted its four sand volleyball nets and outdoor deck seating. Soon we reached the edge of Winona. The main part of the city is divided from the highway by placid Lake Winona. But before we entered the city, we stopped at the welcome center on the shore of Lake Winona. Then Bryan took me in the other direction from the downtown and up winding streets to Garvin Heights, where we could view the entire valley — city, bluffs, river and all. The sign says the city is 575 feet below. Winona, it says, is from the Sioux word “Wenonah,” meaning first-born daughter.

Winona is pure college town. It is the home to Winona State University, St. Mary’s University and (deep breath here) Minnesota State College Southeast Technical. The Mississippi River seems to add extra frivolity to the cities along its shores and Winona is no different. There are plenty of bars, restaurants, coffee shops and specialty stores. Music wafts from the doorways and street corners. Mom-and-pop stores sell goods. Bryan and I visited a butcher shop, Ledeburh Meats, and I bought Iowa chops. We also stopped at Bloedow’s Little Bake Shop and picked up some bread.

It was tempting to head up the Great River Road to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, but we were pooped. Thank goodness Winona had so much to offer travelers at the end of a day of leaf-looking. We needed a place to unwind.

New Albin, Iowa Attractions
Millstone Landing
Upper Mississippi River NWFR

Places to eat
High Chaparral
 
Places to shop
City Meat Market & Grocery
 
Reno Attractions
Reno State Forest & Recreation Area
Reno Bottoms

Brownsville Attractions
Church of St. Patrick’s
Wildcat Landing & Campground
Places to eat
Shellhorn Bar & Grill
Top of the Rock Bar & Grill
Saxon Hall Tavern
 
La Crescent Attractions
Apple orchards
Apple Blossom Scenic Drive
Lock & Dam No. 7
Pettibone Park Resort
Historic Bluff Country Scenic Byway
Vetsch Park
Eagle’s Bluff Park
Pine Creek Golf Course
Dresbech Trail
 
Places to eat
The Commodore
Corky’s Restaurant
 
Places to shop
Bauer’s Market
Leidel’s Apples
Hein Orchard
Old Hickory Orchard
 
Dakota Attractions
Great River Bluffs State Park

Places to eat
Thin Bluffs Tavern
 
Homer Attractions
Gardner-Rogers County Park
The Historic Bunnell House
Big River Room

Winona Attractions
Garvin Heights Park
Winona Visitors Center
Lake Winona
Winona State University
St. Mary’s University
Cedar Valley Golf Course
Prairie Island Park & Campground
Bluffside Park
Winona County Historical Museum
Amtrak Depot
Julia Belle Swain Steamboat
Sugar Loaf Bluff
C.A. Rohr Rose Garden
Minnesota Marine Art Museum
Winona Arts Center
Blue Heron Gallery & Studio
Garvin Heights Vineyard
Upper Mississippi River NWFR
 
Places to Eat
Signatures
Acoustic Café
Historic Anderson House
Zaza’s Pub & Pizzaria
Timber’s Family Restaurant
Blue Heron Coffeehouse
Blooming Grounds Coffee House
Brothers
Bub’s Brewing Co.
Chula Vista
Betty Jo Byoloski’s
 
Places to Shop
North Castle Specialties
Winona Bread & Bagel
Bloedow’s Little Bake Shop on Broadway
Ledebuhr Meats
The Urbane Animal
Bluff Country Co-op
Decker’s Stained Glass Studios
Country Comfort Antique Center
Adventure Cycle & Ski
Magnolia’s
Bronk’s Garden
Pieces of the Past
River Town Pottery
Pretty Things on Third
Bird Song
Bridal Boutique