B.A.R.K. Ranger status: First badges earned, August 5, 2021! ⭐

Hike review: Excellent! Pipestone featured our favorite kinds of walks: beautiful and unique scenery, gentle slopes, clear, wide trails, interpretive signage, and short distances (<2 miles). A bonus was getting to converse with traditional Indigenous craftspeople Travis Erikson and his cousin, who carved and quarried the sacred red pipestone, respectively. As children these gentlemen had come here with grandparents to learn techniques that had been passed down for 2,000 years.

It was a real honor visiting Pipestone, and one of our favorite stops on the whole trip. We did not know a whole lot about the area before the visit, but made the stop as we could see on the map that it was not too far out of our way. Definitely worth the drive, as this area is of enormous importance to our national heritage. This was a fascinating place to visit, first as an historically, and currently, important source of pipestone (catlinite), but also as one of the few locations where the tallgrass prairie has never been plowed. Citizens of federally recognized tribes may get permits to quarry here using traditional methods. This was a beautiful place to take a walk. Exceptional!