Pipestone, Minnesota

When we left Prairie du Chien, we headed north and west...cutting across the corner of Iowa to enter Minnesota.  We followed I-90 west across the bottom of the state, taking a right turn just before we crossed over into South Dakota.  We were going to Pipestone National Monument...

We had lived in Sioux Falls, only an hour away, and never knew this place existed.  Now that we knew of it, well, we just had to go see it for ourselves :)...

The day we visited was a stormy one.  Fortunately, we arrived between downpours and made it inside without getting soaked.  There were only a handful of people there, which was nice...the kids could wander around and take it all in at their leisure...

there were stations with small pieces of pipestone and tools...

In the back of the vc there were areas set up for artists to demonstrate their crafts.  One man in particular was great with the kids.  He kindly answered all their questions about the stone and what it was like to work with.  He also told them of the challenges involved with quarrying the stone.  Only Native Americans are allowed to dig for the pipestone...each person has their own spot in the quarry to work, and work they do.  It's not an easy task by any means.

...for anyone interested to try their hand at carving the pipestone...

After visiting with the folks in the back, we wandered back towards the front to watch the movie and check out the museum.  The only thing left after that was the Circle Trail.  One problem, there was another storm rolling in pretty fast.  We hesitated for a minute, then decided to take a chance and go for it. (it was a short trail, only 3/4 of a mile)

The trail starts out in prairie grass and quickly dips down to follow the creek...

...then up into the rocks.  Another day and we would have spent more time in the rocks, they were very pretty :).  As it was, the storm was getting closer and we had to keep moving...

About halfway around the trail, we heard thunder.  Which means lightning.  Uh oh...  We stepped up our pace and pretty much jogged the last half back to the vc.  Being the only ones there, we had easy access to the Ranger and the kids quickly finished up their Jr. Ranger books.  With that done, we chanced another visit back to the artisan area of the vc.  We only stayed a few minutes though and the ground shaking thunder reminded us it was time to be on our way.  A mad dash to the car and then the bottom of the sky fell out.  It was storming!  Whew!  So thankful that God pushed the pause button long enough for us to get out and stretch our legs for a while.