Joyride with the Joneses
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Effigy Mounds National Monument
Visited: June 2017
Duration: 2 hours
Accommodations: Camping at LaRiviere, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
Every summer we go camping and trail riding in beautiful Prairie du Chien Wisconsin. This year we added an extra day onto the trip so we could visit this National Monument. I had been here before on a field trip when I was a kid and I remembered everything. It’s a pretty cool place and the towns surrounding it have a lot to offer. McGregor, Marquette and Prairie du Chien can keep you busy for a short week if you wanted a good mini-vacation and you are from the midwest.
On this trip we stopped in at the visitor center to get a self guided brochure and our Junior Rangers. We visited the north unit this time, it has some great views points (Eagle Rock and Fire Point), Great Bear Mound Group and Little Bear Mound group. Just a heads up, if you are interested in seeing lots of Mounds, Marching Bear Group might be what you are looking for in the South Unit.
We took off up the hiking trail from the visitor center, looking carefully for a vent one of the rangers had secretly told us about. Just like she said, it was right there! Boys were elated that we found it. We told everyone that walked past us about it 🙂 It wasn’t a secret for long. Next up, awesome views of the Mississippi River.
After you hit the view points you go back to the main trail to visit the mounds. We hit both Little Bear and Great Bear mound groups. Hard to see from the ground, I like the aerial pictures in the brochure better, obviously. Still very pretty.
The term effigy refers to mounds built in the shape of something. Here at Effigy mounds they are mounds in the shape of bears and birds.
We hiked around some more and got the phone call that dad was done running errands and is on his way back to pick us up. We headed back down to the visitor center and finished up our Junior Rangers on the observation deck right outside. We went in and earned our badges, got our stickers, magnet and cancellations and we were off to enjoy a weekend of riding mules.
That concludes our trip to this National Monument. We had a great time and will revisit the South part of the park on our next visit. Thanks for stopping by.
Joyride with the Joneses 
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