Minnesota comes alive in the pages of "Wild Minnesota." "Wild Minnesota" contains more than 150 full-color photographs of Minnesota's natural wonders. Author Shawn Perich and photographer Gary Alan Nelson traveled thousands of miles to give us this photographic portrait of the diverse and unique natural areas of our state.

Minnesota is often thought of as the state of 10,000 lakes, but it is much more. It is the peaks of the Sawtooth mountain range along the North Shore and the winding mighty Mississippi in the east. It is the rainbow palette of wildflowers and native grasses of the prairies and the spectacular limestone bluffs of the southeast. It is the acres of pine forests of Itasca State Park and the Red River valley's exceptionally rich soil.

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Wild Minnesota" is the natural beauty of our state; it is what we see, hear, and feel as we paddle one of the many unspoiled lakes of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, hike the Superior Hiking Trail, view the tremendous diversity of wildlife in the Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge. It is the call of the loon on Mille Lacs, the pounding of a powerful wave on the Lake Superior shore, the experience of history through the rock outcroppings of the Jeffers Petroglyphs. It is that still, golden late summer afternoon when you know the Gopher state is where you're meant to be.