Nature Archives - Page 10 of 10

MN Buffalo Ridge series [The To and From] [Gibbon, MN] [Pipestone National Monument] [Blue Mound State Park] [Morton, MN Monuments]

We had wonderful weather for our exploration of Pipestone National Monument in Pipestone, MN. It is amazing to see these quarries and the amount of Sioux Quartzite rock that was removed by hand with only hand tools to expose the pipestone. We were not fortunate enough to witness the actual mining of the pipestone, but did speak with the artisans inside that were carving pipestone and working with sumac to form the pipe stems.

I won’t ramble on with the complete history of this very interesting place. Just let you imagination wonder while viewing the photos of what it must have been like in a different time. If you want to know more, visit Pipestone, MN and see it first-hand. The National Park Services has a wonderful website about all things in Pipestone, MN.

Catlinite (also called pipestone or pipeclay) is a type of argillite, usually brownish-red in color, which occurs in a matrix of Sioux quartzite. Because it is fine-grained and easily worked, it is prized by Native Americans for use in making sacred pipes such as calumets (Fr: “hollow reed”) and chanunpas. Pipestone quarries are located and preserved in Pipestone National Monument outside of Pipestone, Minnesota, in Pipestone County, Minnesota, and at the Pipestone River in Ontario, Canada.
~Wikipedia

There wasn’t any extreme off-roading at all on our trip to North Dakota; there were roads everywhere. We roamed about freely; pretty much uninhibited by obstacles with the exception of the “bridge out” signs in the middle of nowhere and the occasional pond/lake right in the middle of a road. The GPS was rather amusing with its informative display of where we were driving. Often it stated unpaved road or simply – Driving on Road. You can truly find the middle of nowhere in ND. I love it.

When traveling through the middle of nowhere don’t be surprised if you encounter a train of machinery blocking your way. You can see the dust cloud miles away. That is your hint to pull off and get out of their way. Harvest time was in full gear when we were there. The dust from the roads and the picking of corn and beans made for some interesting photos.

know I have used the term “dirt road” rather loosely; to include gravel roads, etc. – anything not paved. We were actually on dirt roads in ND – black fertile dirt very compacted from grain trucks and other farming machinery. These field roads were smooth. In fact, they were often smoother-riding than some of the black top roads. The weeds on these dirt roads were a bit tall in spots though. There were several times that we stopped to shoot some wildlife and all you could smell was simmering grasshopper guts and burnt weeds.

There was plenty of wildlife between each town and abandoned place we happened upon. I very much enjoyed my close encounter with a hawk and just the sheer numbers of them that we saw. We chased around egrets for a while as well and stumbled upon some baby turkeys. They are not cute at all – as most baby animals usually are. Everyone of those puddles held an abundance of waterfowl with no shortage of goose poop.

This was two of the better days we have enjoyed out shooting in a while. Great locations, weather and of course my company is always wonderful.