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| Great River Road Visitor Center and the paved Interpretive Trail. |
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| Great River Road Visitor Center Interpretive Trail map. |
For those traveling south along ‘Ol Man River, the visitor center marks a good first stop. Prescott sits at the confluence of the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers, with the Great River Road – Wis. Hwy. 35 – paralleling the latter waterway south to the Illinois border.
To reach the visitor center and trail, drive southeast of downtown Prescott on Hwy. 35. Turn right/south on Monroe Street. The center is in one block at Freedom Park.
The paved interpretive trail overlooking the river and the visitor center sit atop a bluff rising 400 feet above the Mississippi River. The trail offers fantastic views of the riverway, Prescott Island to the north, and raptors flying overhead. Elsewhere in the small park, century-old burr oak trees grow amid picnic tables and a playground.
Inside the center are several exhibits on bald eagles and river life. Presentations are offered throughout the year.
Starting as a creek flowing out of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, the Mississippi River flows 2,320 miles south to the Gulf of Mexico. It is North America’s second longest river, though arguably its most important.
The Mississippi is a muddy brown compared to the St. Croix’s brilliant blue, readily apparent if crossing the U.S. Hwy. 10 bridge into Prescott or if gazing north from the interpretive trail. Though the Mississippi was heavily polluted for much of the last century, today the brown is due to the large amount of sediment from the Minnesota River. In addition, the Mississippi’s riverbed is quite steep in Minnesota, dropping half of its entire elevation to sea level just between its headwaters and St. Paul, Minn.
The Upper Mississippi is much different than that of the South, whose gambling steamboats and rafts of Mark Twain fame fire the imagination. Through Minnesota and Wisconsin, the river is largely trapped between high, steep bluffs and often splits into back channels. By the time the river reaches central Illinois, it becomes a broad, meandering waterway with few bluffs or hills nearby.
Much of the Mississippi north of St. Louis has been reduced to a series of lakes thanks to an extensive lock and dam system. Largely constructed during the Great Depression, the locks and dams make the river more navigable while preventing major flooding. Lock and Dam No. 3 in Red Wing, Minn., forms the pool before the interpretive trail, which backs up to Lock and Dam No. 2 north of Hastings, Minn.
Among the center’s current projects is restoration of a goat prairie. These uphill meadows were common along this part of the Mississippi River until agriculture and urban development wiped them out during the 20th century. Among the plants in these prairies were the blazing star, Indiangrass, pasque flowers, and the prairie smoke flower.
The visitor center is closed on Mondays in fall and spring and Monday through Friday during winter.
Learn about trail guidebooks available in the Hittin’ the Trail series.
