Brower Trail

The Brower Trail, named for Jacob Brower who surveyed the Mississippi headwaters and advocated for the park's establishment in the 1880s, is Itasca's longest backcountry hiking loop and the best route for experiencing the park's more remote lake-dotted interior. Departing from the Ozawindib Trail parking area, the route traverses a rolling glacial moraine landscape of numerous small lakes, kettle ponds, and sandy ridges covered in forest ranging from old-growth pine to younger aspen and birch regeneration. The trail passes the north shore of Elk Lake, a crystal-clear kettle lake of glacial origin that harbors a documented bald eagle nesting territory; the nest is visible from the shoreline path as a massive stick structure in the crown of a white pine. Moose tracks and browsed willows are common along the lakeshore sections, and the park's resident moose population, one of the southernmost in Minnesota, makes regular appearances at dawn. The western arc of the loop traverses a particularly rich old-growth maple-basswood stand on a protected north-facing slope, its forest floor dense with large-flowered trillium in May. The trail returns via a high sandy ridge covered in jack pine, a fire-adapted community that depends on periodic burning to maintain its open, lichen-carpeted understory. The full loop represents a genuine backcountry experience within Itasca's boundaries.