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This is a Rest Area Earthcache. Simply park and find the GZ.
Lying at the center of the North American continent, Minnesota embraces three great watersheds – areas of land from which all surface water eventually flows into one united stream. From Minnesota’s watersheds, water runs off in three directions to three different seas:
• In the largest of the watersheds, the water flows south through the Mississippi River and its tributaries to the Gulf of Mexico.
• From northeastern Minnesota and its St. Louis River system, water drains eastward into Lake Superior and moves through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.
• In northwestern Minnesota water flows north by way of the Red River of the North and the Rainy River into Canada’s Lake Winnipeg and on to Hudson Bay.
Watersheds are a drainage basin is an extent of land (Think a bowl or funnel) where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers that convey the water as well as the land surfaces from which water drains into those channels, and is separated from adjacent basins by a drainage divide such as the crest of a mountain or mountain range.
Watersheds drain into other watersheds in a hierarchical form, larger ones breaking into smaller ones or sub-watersheds with the topography determining where the water flows.
These three watersheds have very different physical features:
The St. Louis River watershed is rough, hilly, and heavily wooded. Many of its streams have swift currents, abound with waterfalls, and rarely overflow their steep rocky banks. The St. Louis River watershed is 3634 sq. miles and is the largest US River to flow into Lake Superior. It was primarily created by glacial retreat action during the last part of the Ice Ages. The retreat of the glaciers had both a "tearing" and sedimentary effect on the landscape creating the deep topography of this region.
The watershed of the Red River of the North lies largely on flat prairie land. The riverbanks are low and currents sluggish. Minnesota’s north flowing streams that are a part of this watershed are particularly prone to spring flooding when runoff from melting snow and warm rains in the southern part of the watershed reaches northern areas still frozen over or clogged with ice flows. The "funnel" that forms this watershed are very shallow and separated by what most would consider to be small ridges or rises rather than the stereotypical mountain ranges of other significant watersheds.
Geologically, The Red River flows across the flat lakebed of the ancient glacial Lake Agassiz, an enormous glacial lake created at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation from meltwaters of the Laurentide ice sheet. As this continental glacier decayed, its meltwaters formed the lake, and over thousands of years sediments precipitated to the bottom of the lakebed. The river itself is very young since it is believed to have began only after Lake Agassiz drained, about 9,500 years ago. It proceeds across the prairie at a slow meandering rate, dropping less the 1 foot per mile. As a result, it isn't energetic enough to cut a gorge like many other rivers. In fact, geologically it is very quiet, most of the "effect" of this river actually preceeds the formation of the river, back in the era of Lake Agassiz.
The Mississippi watershed combines features of the other two. Generally the upper portion is heavily forested, with rolling terrain and swift streams. Farther down, currents slow and streams meander through open prairies, where they may overflow their banks in times of high water. This watershed is VERY diverse, with mountain / hill ranges separating this watershed from others in some areas, while simple erosion depressions keep the funnel watershed extant in the other areas. Geologically, the Mississippi River watershed was primarily influnced, not by glacial action, but rather by plate tectonics. The Mississippi River Embayment Extends from Southern Minnesota to Lousiana. It is a smaller rift that was formed nearby the major rift that is believed to have formed as the North American plate broke away from Pangea. At the time, the sea level was much higher, but as sea levels dropped (thanks to the retreating glaciers to the north) the rift was exposed, creating the Mississippi river (that was of course deeped by subsequent erosion/sedimentation). The New Madrid Fault runs along this rift, and historically is responsible for the largest earthquakes of 1811-1812, the largest recorded quakes in US History.
Logging Requirements:
Send the answers to #1 & #2 to me through my geocaching profile (Logging: Since the advent of the "new" Message the Owner feature, I prefer messages through that venue).
1. Look around you (yes, a 360 degree turn) and determine which of the watersheds listed in the description and/or on the signage you are standing in right now. The answer to this question is logging requirement #2.
2. (Per current gc.com guidelines, photos are no longer allowed to be required. HOWEVER they are encouraged, since they can help clarify that you have visited the location if your other logging requirement answers are vague). Take a picture of yourself and/or your GPS with the interpretive panel OR Rest area building clearly visible behind you. Please post your picture simultaneously with your log, otherwise you endanger your log being deleted.
I will only respond if you have incomplete logging requirements. Go ahead and log your cache
Resources:
Signage at location.
Additional Hints
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