Boatnerd Discussion Forum

Here's the web site for all the vessels sailing in the world. They also cover all the river traffic in the US. A free site with a lot of maritime info, plus pictures of most of the vessels. Fun to go to the rivers every so often to take a Great Lakes break. https://www.marinetraffic.com

Lock and Dam 2 at Hastings,Mn. Has a good viewing stand right by the Lock. If you are looking for a lot of activity Red Wing is the place to stop. Go to the train Depot which is right on the river.Tows going by and a Elevator loading Barges right there.Many trains go thru there including the Amtrack at 830 am going east and the evening amtrack going west.And if you are lucky the American Queen and American Dutches stop there for 2 days before going South.

Hit "send" too soon. Almost the whole drive from Hastings down to LaCrosse on the MN side and back on the WI side is almost entirely bluffs.

Quicker than I thought.

I do have. It may be awhile.

garbear wrote:

garbear wrote:There are a lot of locks/dams between Hastings, MN and LaCrosse you can stop at to view the towboats/tows. A couple of my favorites were Alma and Trempealeau, WI. Have viewing stands and in the fall the scenery is fantastic. Plus, the birds migrating South. If you're lucky you will see thousands at a time.

Sounds like I was doing a tourism promo:)

Great job, Garbear! Any colored photos to go with it?

garbear wrote:There are a lot of locks/dams between Hastings, MN and LaCrosse you can stop at to view the towboats/tows. A couple of my favorites were Alma and Trempealeau, WI. Have viewing stands and in the fall the scenery is fantastic. Plus, the birds migrating South. If you're lucky you will see thousands at a time.

Sounds like I was doing a tourism promo:)

There are a lot of locks/dams between Hastings, MN and LaCrosse you can stop at to view the towboats/tows. A couple of my favorites were Alma and Trempealeau, WI. Have viewing stands and in the fall the scenery is fantastic. Plus, the birds migrating South. If you're lucky you will see thousands at a time.

You didn't mention when you were there, but Lock 15 at Rock Island has been locking tows every day for the past 15 days that I checked. As garbear mentioned, lots of barges are fleeted along the riverbanks until needed or until a tow is built up for a specific destination.

FYI, Lock and Dam 15 is on Rock Island and has a great visitors center. Plus there are several military museums and displays on the island, which is still an active military base. The public is welcome to visit these public displays during most of the day, although you have to go through a security check.

Use this website, and click on Mississippi River and Lock 15 to get some recent reports of traffic through the locks:

http://corpslocks.usace.army.mil/lpwb/f?p=121:1:0:::::

Used to go down to Winona, MN a lot in the fall. A lot of times it's empty barges waiting to load at an elevator, etc., or they are loaded and are waiting for other barges to put together a tow to go down the Mississippi.

We were in the Quad City area on the Mississippi and for 2 day's there were large numbers of barges and tow's up against the banks and no one moved in that time. Was there a problem with one of the locks ? Thanks in advance