Climbing up to Effigy Mounds

One of the Register's 100 Places in Iowa, Effigy Mounds National Monument was not the easiest place to get to see. The climb from the entrance to the first mounds was significant; it was pretty with the turning leaves but the incline was not easily overlooked. Once we were at the top of the bluff, the trail wound through the woods, passing by various mounds. There are some two hundred mounds in the monument, thirty-one in the shapes of animals; the rest are conical, linear, or compound.

The images in the upper right and across the bottom show some of the mounds. They weren't very tall and most could almost have been overlooked or dismissed as simply oddly shaped soil. Those that were identified as effigies had what looked like a wide chalky stripe defining the edges to help see the shapes.

At a couple of mounds, there were the usual park service signs telling how people recognized the mounds and the best understanding of their purpose. As is often the case, as we learned more about the subject, the more questions we had. It really was a nice stop.