On a late-summer day, we ventured to Pipestone, Minnesota, to visit the Pipestone National Monument. I’d been there as a child, but as we pulled in, I was shocked to see that what I remembered vividly wasn’t the National Park Service area, but “Fort Pipestone,” a souvenir shop. Oops.

We continued on to the National Monument and weren’t quite sure what to expect. A friendly park ranger greeted us at the visitor center and set the kids up with a guidebook for the junior ranger program. This allowed them to complete a scavenger hunt and other activities based on things found in the visitor center and adjacent circle tour.

Inside the visitor center, the kids were intrigued by the artisans who were making pipes from the pipestone. They were also happy to show their dad some of the petroglyphs they could see on the red rocks, since he had missed the trip to the Jeffers Petroglyphs a few weeks earlier.

Without a stroller, I wasn’t sure we wanted to walk the 3/4 mile circle trail, but we decided to give it a try after the ranger told us there would be a bridge, a creek, and a waterfall. I’m glad we did! It was a beautiful, peaceful trail. The kids loved all the things the ranger mentioned, plus climbing the stairs to the top of the rocks. (This is the only part of the trail which would not have been negotiable with the stroller.) One child enjoyed it so much that he and I continued on another path to see more of the pipestone quarries as we returned to the visitor center.

When we returned, the kids were awarded their Junior Ranger badges, which they wore proudly. We hope to collect more of these as we travel to more National Park Service locations.

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