This is the last day of our road trip. Both of us are tired of loading and unloading the car and ready to have a full kitchen again. However, the trip has been an education and experience of a lifetime. I would recommend it to anyone who likes (loves?) to drive and wants to learn more about North America’s geography, native peoples, and history, and to have fun with new and old, natural and manmade, attractions.
Even though it’s the last day of our trip we still have one photo opportunity, our entrance back into Minnesota, and one important stop to make, at Pipestone National Monument.
Pipestone is north of Highway 90 and east of Sioux Falls and will have us choosing the cross-country route back to Minneapolis, rather than the L-shape return on 90 and 35. It’s a short drive from Sioux Falls and a beautiful day so we’re fine with that.
I will admit that as we pull into Pipestone I am thinking, “Wow, a prairie grass field, never seen one of these in Minnesota before.” Since I shouldn’t use emojis in a blog post I have to tell you I was saying it to myself in a sarcastic way with an added internal eye roll. At the time I didn’t pass this thought on to Dan as he wouldn’t have shared my attitude, which he would undoubtedly call grumpy. I already have enough of a reputation and I don’t need to add to it. So I got Duncan out of the car and wandered around outside while Dan got our passbook stamped and took a look at the souvenir section inside the visitor center.
The trail around the back of the visitor center is easy to access, quiet, and beautiful today. In under a mile, with Duncan leading the way most of the time, we pass by a prairie grass field, a full creek, a 10 or 12 foot high waterfall, and quarries that have been active for thousands of years and continue to be used by the Native Americans. This park was actually created to preserve the only location of pipestone used by many tribes to create the pipes so important to their culture.
When we finished the trail Dan stayed outside with Duncan and I went inside the visitor center. I wanted to see some of the artists at work and get a feeling for how they are preserving their art and culture and the tools and process they go through to create. There were three people working in the studios, all working on different parts of the creation process. They’re were happy to chat with visitors and answer questions they could.
In the end, I came away from this stop with a more profound respect for one of the things that the national park system is trying to do. I already knew that one of the important goals of the NPS is to preserve and protect natural landscapes and resources for future generations. However, until Pipestone it did not click with me that respect for Native Americans and their culture and origins was a large part of what they (NPS) are protecting as well.
While this is the end of our road trip, the experience has changed both of us and given us a new appreciation for what is available out there, old and new, to explore and learn from. For sure we will be doing more of this in the future.
