Within a few hours, you can stand on rocks more than a billion years old, see ancient carvings once shaped by stone tools thousands of years ago, walk through opulent banks designed in the early 20th century and watch stained glass being made. Perhaps it's appropriate to begin at one of Minnesota's oldest landmarks, Blue Mounds State Park, where the underlying base of Sioux quartzite is about one and one-half billion years old, give or take a millennium or two. Although its name is plural, the park, just north of Luverne in the state's southwest corner, is actually one very large mound. It covers nearly two-thirds of the park's 1,600 acres and rises more than 100 feet above the surrounding terrain. On the east side of the mound, you come upon 90-foot cliffs that plummet into the prairie below.
Hikers can easily pick their way down through the jumbled rocks.
Nearly a dozen miles of trails lead through the park, passing by a pasture where about 40 buffalo roam. An interpretive center houses exhibits about the park's history, geology and wildlife. Used to fashion various items, the pipestone is used in particular to make the bowls of ceremonial pipes. Besides its cultural and religious significance, the site is a pretty place to stop for a picnic. Day-hikers enjoy the natural prairie, the rugged wall of exposed quartzite where colors range from pink to deep purple and the waters of Pipestone Creek which gush over Winnewissa Falls and pool into a small lake.