Pipestone National Monument

28Nov21

After two very different visits to Pipestone National Monument over the past six or seven years, it was refreshing to have a more “normal” visit to the Minnesota site.

Which is strange since this last visit occurred in the middle of a pandemic. That just tells you how weird the other two visits were.

On my first visit to Pipestone, I was about half way through the nearly mile-long loop trail when a thunderstorm came up suddenly and totally drenched me. I was so wet, I had to go to the local Pamida and purchase a change of clothes. If I remember right, I had a spare pair of tennis shoes in the car so at least my feet were dry on the way home.

My second visit was uneventful. What was strange was there was no one at the park. No cars in the parking lot. No local residents walking the trail. Not even a park ranger. I spent close to an hour at Pipestone without seeing a soul.

I would have expected that this time around, especially given the restrictions imposed during the pandemic. But to my surprise the place was bustling. There were at least three park rangers wanting to help me and I ran across countless other visitors while I was at Pipestone. There were even a pair of high school students getting their senior pictures taken at different locations.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Pipestone is a lovely park with both historical and visual significance. 

The park’s namesake quarries are a sacred site for many Native Americans. For centuries, tribes across North America traveled to this site to quarry red pipestone for making pipes and effigies from the easily carved material. Even today, Native Americans travel to quarry this sacred stone and continue the tradition of pipemaking.

You can learn about this at the minimal, but informative, museum inside the visitor center. If you choose, you can view a film that illustrates the cultural history of the monument and on selected weekends you can view carving demonstrations.

There are a few stops along the loop trail that highlight the pipestone quarries Instead it’s the tallgrass prairie, Winnewissa Falls and accompanying falls that capture your attention.

When the area isn’t in a drought, Winnewissa Falls is one of the prettiest waterfalls I’ve seen. And as spectacular as the falls are, the creek that cuts through the trail is some of the bluest water I’ve come across. 

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