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For a big river, the Mississippi can be awfully hard to find. Though it traverses 21 miles of Washington County, from Newport to the St. Croix River confluence in Hastings-Prescott, there are precious few places to access the water as it flows. To find the river here requires a road map and plenty of time on your hands. When you get there, you’ll likely have the view to yourself, unless you count the egrets or eagles overhead.

Hazen P. Mooers Park in Cottage Grove is a small one-acre parcel halfway across the bridge to Grey Cloud Island (10911 Grey Cloud Trail S.). The park has four parking spaces, a small picnic area, and a carry-in boat launch for kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards. It is located just south of the equally hard-to-find Grey Cloud Dunes Scientific and Natural Area and downriver from the new bridge on Hwy 75 that crosses Grey Cloud Slough. Though it’s part of the Mississippi Riverway, the water that flows past the park is technically Mooers Lake, a backwater channel of the Mississippi that separates Grey Cloud Island from the “mainland” of Washington County.

  

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