Joyride with the Joneses
Follow along on our family journeys!
Pipestone National Monument
1st National Park/Monument on National Park Trip Season 2 is in Pipestone, Minnesota and boy what a treat this place was. We learned so much here, and it was all very interesting!!
For nearly 2000 years the Plains Indians have prized this soft stone. They use it to make stone pipes for ceremonial smoking. At the visitor center there is a short, 22 minute film on the struggles the Native Americans had to protect their lands and quarries for this precious stone. Very interesting, I highly recommend.
We then walked through the small museum that displayed some of the pipes that the Native Americans made!
We witnessed a demonstration on how to sand the stone and how the pipes were made. The man was very patient with our questions! Very fun to watch. Gunnar couldn’t get enough.
We grabbed our Junior Ranger booklets and took off to the outside trail. We did the Circle trail and stopped to take a lot of pictures. This place is very photogenic. The boys loved finding the faces in the rocks, can you spot them as well??
Next up Winniwissa Falls!! Absolutely Gorgeous!! 
Can’t go wrong here!! Keep walking and you get to enjoy the beautiful pinks and brick reds of the rocks! So pretty! 
And just when you think the walk is over, you get this view, from the bottom of the creek! Wow, what a view!!
Back to the Visitor Center for our Junior Ranger Badges (see below).
Oh and let’s not forget our cancellations and sticker for our National Park Passport books! It wouldn’t be a trip without it!! Do you have yours yet? Our family loves ours!!
Now we are chilling out at The Historic Calumet Inn, in Pipestone! Beautiful hotel, rumor has it, it may be haunted! 👻👻 Game on!! We will let you know if we hear anything going bump in the night 😱 As of now I recommend this place! Reminds me of some hotels we stayed at in Europe. I can’t get enough of those!
Hope you enjoyed our pictures of Day 1 of National Park Trip Season 2! Up next is The Badlands!!
Enjoy your travels!!
Joyride with the Joneses 
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Was just there May 5th. Jenn’s account and information is spot on. The pipe carver was there working away and the trail is an easy walk of 3/4 mile.
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