Mississippi River
Photo: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Midwest The Mississippi River runs 2,320 miles (3,730 km) south from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to Plaquemines Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana, drawing a wide, tangled and twisted dividing line cleaving the continental United States of America almost into two.
UnderstandThe Mississippi has a long-established place in US history, which spans years of slavery and hardship, civil war, the mechanisation of the steamboat era and the rush to extend colonisation westward.
PrepareThis route is entirely within the United States of America.
Get inThe Mississippi River runs from north to south; the 2,320-mile-long river begins at Lake Itasca.
GoFrom Itasca State Park by road, take US 71 south to US 10. US 10 runs southeast through St.
Stay safeWeather in the Midwest can be unpredictable so, in the north, standard precautions regarding winter driving and ice safety apply.
Go nextListed generally from upstream to downstream:
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Mississippi River" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons