As a practical matter, I never spend as much time as I should researching NPS sites before we visit. Which has an upside; there's an element of surprise. And - I knew nothing about Pipestone, except for a little bit about George Catlin's association with the site, which we heard about at Saint Croix.
And - it's a wonderful site.
The site is named for the soft (2.5 Mohs) stone found here which many Native American tribes used to make - pipes. There's a nice, if small, exhibit about the pipemaking; there were also petroglyphs found here, which have been moved but are well kept in the visitor center. So far so good...
...but there are also Native American artists making pipes; they have three stations set up, and one artist was working while we visited. This is - very cool. But...
...they also sell artwork by the artists who work there. Not pipes, but other objects - all very nice. And...
...they have a very nice trail, from which you can see multiple active pipestone quarries. Including one you can descend into, to see the layers. Also...
...there are the natural rock formations themselves, which led the Native Americans to the site in the first place. But then...
...there's the waterfall. And the river, and the lake. It's really a beautiful site - far prettier and more diverse than one would expect from such a small site. This is probably my favorite site from this trip - though it's definitely not Megan's, so take that with a grain of salt.
Oh, and as a bonus, on the way we stopped at the Jeffers Petroglyphs, a site with extensive drawings, dating back thousands of years. Unfortunately the visitor center is only open Saturdays, so we missed out on that, but the petroglyphs themselves were enjoyable. The even more spectacular view came on the drive - we saw two _large_ birds ahead on the road. We assumed they were large crows, or maybe turkey vultures - but in fact they were bald eagles, and we got to see them closer than I've ever seen a bald eagle before.
No comments:
Post a Comment