I am planning a trip down the Mississippi in late June of 2026. We plan to put in at Mile Marker 1018.3 (Black Bear Creek). Our areas of interest specifically are near Mission Creek and Crow Wing State Park.

I am looking for any advice and direction. Is 20 miles or 30 miles too far for paddling in a day, downstream? What are water levels like? Any stops and features we should be on the lookout for? Recommended campsites? Good fishing anywhere? Worth going from Crow Wing to Little Falls?

Paging Wally13 to the white courtesy phone... :)

Boatmaninc,

Send me an email. I did the Mississippi Headwaters to the Gulf in 2021.

We did the river section from Grand Rapids to Charles Lindbergh State park as a family about 30 years ago. From what I can remember, the river upstream from Brainerd was slow and quite boring. The banks were often cut so getting out was difficult, and I didn’t like the dam at Brainerd because the portage was too close to the top of the dam.

After Brainerd, the river moved quickly as it was very rocky, nice paddling.
Crow Wing State park was great. They let us camp in the group area where the water access was. We stopped at Little Falls. I needed to recover for work and had enough of the dams.

I am sure the fishing is good. We didn’t fish, but would guess there are plenty of small mouth and walleyes in it.

Our longest day was 42 miles and we averaged 28 miles a day. Thirty miles a day would be easy below Brainerd where the river picks up speed.

You can email me and I would give you my phone number and we could talk.

Carl

Our family camped at Crow Wing SP and then spent the next day paddling to Little Falls. I don’t remember how many hours but it wasn’t an especially long day. Water levels that time of year are HIGHLY variable so check the DNR river level website before you start. If water is low, there are some shallow rapids south of the Fort Ridley landing…if water is high you’ll just float over. We just used the free map from MN DNR. Be sure to spend some time at Crow Wing SP. Interesting history.

I haven’t done further upstream from Brainerd but I’ve done sections where I’ve used the riverside campsites and really enjoyed them. Have fun!

We did this section of river last year. Water was low, and hit a number of sand bars and rocks. (this was during the MR145).

From what I remember, the Crow Wing area was beautiful, and a nice paddle. I don't know the restrictions, but people were pulling off and camping directly off the river.

We enjoyed it so much, we are planning on doing it again.

Wally:
Is there somewhere we can read about your adventures?

Thanks!

SammyN,

I recommended to boatmaninc that he overnightat at CROW WING STATE PARK. It has a dock river left @ RM 991.9 at the river bend. It is a nice elevated site with a picnic table overlooking the river. I think there was a sign near the dock saying no camping, but I could see that it was used as a campsite so I took it. I arrived at supper time and didn’t think I would be bothered by a park ranger being a single solo tenter and arriving late in the day. I didn’t see any campsites close to the dock for paddlers other than this site. A few trail bikers zoomed by me after I was setting up my camp. One of the best sites on my 72 night trip of the Mississippi River Headwaters to the Gulf.



I did not post anything about my Mississippi River trip on social media.
However, I did post a daily summary of my last 2 long distance adventure trips on FACEBOOK.

- Erie Canal to Statue of Liberty by Canoe
ERIE CANAL FACEBOOK LINK


- Tennessee River from Knoxsville, TN to Paducah, KY
TENNESSEE RIVER