The Great River Road leaves Brainerd to the north on County 3 (former MN 25), crossing the Mississippi again at the city limits. North of Merrifield it turns east on County 19, which leads to County 11 and then MN 6 south across the Mississippi and into Crosby. MN 210 leads east to Aitkin, where the route turns back to the north on County 1 and crosses the river yet again, then follows the unpaved County 21 and County 10 (separated by a bit of US 169) to Palisade. County 10 continues as a paved road from that city, north across MN 200 near Jacobson and northwest to Grand Rapids (becoming County 3 in Itasca County). The Great River Road does not cross the river in the Grand Rapids area, turning south on 7th Avenue, west on 10th Street and County 23, north on County 76, and west on County 63. At MN 6 the route jogs south to County 28, where it turns west and soon enters Cass County as County 65. Several more turns—north on County 74, west on County 3, and north to remain on County 3—take it to another Mississippi crossing onto County 18, from which it turns west on US 2 into Ball Club. County 39 and a bit of MN 46 lead to County 9, which runs southwest across the river at the Lake Winnibigoshish outlet and back to US 2, where it turns west to and beyond Bena.