Great Faces - Pink Places

 

If you spend any amount of time in Sioux Falls, you’ll begin to notice a pattern of pink:  pink streets, pink courthouses, churches, schools, prisons, and homes. Pink is a prevalent color.  Sioux Falls was sorta built on pink, pink Sioux Quartzite that is.  Sioux Quartzite is one durable stone.  In fact, it's purportedly second only in hardness to the diamond.  

Falls Park is a playland of pink Sioux Quartzite.  There are plenty of rock formations to climb on throughout the park.  Just be careful not to fall in the river.  It happens.  The Big Sioux River cascades over the quartzite to create the falls.  If you're visiting Sioux Falls, it's pretty much a requirement to go to the falls.  

My favorite part of the park is the small sandy beach to the west edge of the smaller falls.  You will have to do a little climbing to get to it, but you'll probably have the cove to yourself once you get there.  

The Falls Overlook Cafe, operated by Stensland Farms, comes in a close second on the fave list.  The cafe overlooks the falls, as the name implies.  It's a beautifully restored Sioux Quartzite building.  The menu is surprisingly diverse and appealing, from ice cream to flatbreads and fresh salads, as well as local craft beer and wine.

If you're into cool ruins, check out the east side of the park. The Queen Bee Mill remnants bring to mind the world's ancient ruins.  Local theater companies have used the Queen Bee Mill ruins as a backdrop to a summer series of Shakespearian plays. 

Queen Bee Mill Ruins

The Washington Pavilion, Federal Courthouse, and Old Courthouse Museum are all fine examples of Sioux Quartzite architecture. Other notables include the State Penitentiary, the Pettigrew Museum, and the Illinois Central Passenger Depot.  Even new buildings continue the theme with pinkened facades and slabs of Sioux Quartzite defining the landscape.  

A stroll through my historic neighborhood reveals plenty of uses for the hard, pink stuff:  a hitching post, arched ornamental cladding around doorways, decorative exterior veneers, pillars, foundations, and retaining walls.  My own 1950’s house has a Sioux Quartzite patio.  I’m not an expert in the healing properties of rocks, but I mean, one-and-a-half-billion-year-old quartzite?  And it’s pink?  I feel the positive energy.   

For an up-close-and-personal experience with Sioux Quartzite, take the 30-minute trip east on I-90 to Palisades Park in Garretson, South Dakota. The “Queen” and “King” rocks are popular with rock climbers.  Once at the top, climbers are rewarded with bird’s-eye views of  Split Rock Creek running through the Sioux Quartzite outcroppings.  

Queen and King Rock - Palisades Park

Falls Park is free.  Parking is available on-site.  Falls Overlook Cafe is seasonal.  Check its website for availability.  Palisades Park in Garretson is an $8 fee/vehicle without an annual state park pass.  Parking is available on-site.