Friday morning, March 29th, 2019 sunrise over the Mississippi River flowing high and wide in Red Wing, MN. Scenes from the levee and Bay Point Park.
The Cannon River continues to drop in Welch upstream, but it’s still high and over its banks at Hwy 61 north of Red Wing. These shots were taken Tuesday March 26th. I can see little difference today in the level today.
The setting sun last Saturday cooperated nicely. The clouds and color made a spectacular appearance. The high and wide Mississippi was smooth as glass and reflected the sky nicely.
Last Saturday was a beautiful day to fly and capture the rising water around the Red Wing Levee and bridge construction. The mighty Mississippi is wide and muddy. The National Weather Service forecast indicates that the water is going to get a bit higher yet, but nothing close 20.70 ft back on 04/18/1965 thankfully.
I Googled the interweb and did not find much information regarding the history of the Red Wing Boat Houses. The only thing I found was an article from the Winona Daily News from July 4th, 2009 – Book traces history of boathouses on the Mississippi. The book referenced in the article, The Floating Boathouses on the Upper Mississippi River: Their History, Their Stories is available on Amazon for $99.96. I probably will not be ordering that any time soon.
I did find some information regarding the Red Wing Yacht Club in an article from Post Bulletin March 13, 2015 regarding the lease to operate in Red Wing Bay. In the article it said:
Kevin Avery, commodore of the yacht club, explained that the club has been in the harbor for 112 years and has 275 members, about 80 percent of them from Red Wing. Nearly all the boats in the harbor are fishing boats or recreational runabouts housed in modest floating boathouses.
Now 116 years – that is some longevity. I’ll have to keep digging for more information on the yacht cloud and boat houses.
I did find a copy of Friends and Neighbors All: Brief History of the Red Wing Yacht Club Special Edition for $250 if anyone is interested in that. Yikes.
If anyone has any information about the Red Wing boat houses or any others on the Mississippi feel free to leave a link in the comments.
This last Friday morning I made my way south from Red Wing to Weaver to shoot the sun rising over the White Water River Valley. The color was beautiful despite there not being even a hint of clouds.
I flew from a small pull-off on 26 just to the west of Weaver.
A return to Pine Creek this last Thursday evening produced some nice light. I have hoped to capture a decent sunset panorama in the valley – a mix of color and clouds, but no luck yet. The weekends in March haven’t yielded such a situation. It was better than total gray like previous visits. The melt has been on and the water is high again.
Panoramas from a previous trip; you can see how high the water was.
The high bridge and levee are both under construction at the moment. This will be interesting given the rising water from the Spring snow melt.
I witnessed a nice sunrise along Highway 61 in Red Wing adjacent to Barn Bluff.
The launch Pad
This morning was pretty dull. There was not much of sunrise at all. The color was small and brief on the horizon. So brief I almost missed it prepping the drone for flight. I was happy to be out anyway with the possibility of another foot of snow coming tomorrow.
I barely drained the a battery getting this shot so captured a bit more of the town I grew up in the first 4 years of my life; a town I spend many sunrises in annually. These bluff lands are a beautiful area. It’s hard to imagine living anywhere else…ur…um, except this time of year. I could picture myself living all kinds of places. This winter needs to end.
