Effigy Mounds National Monument

Aug. 5, 2024

Cemeteries are fascinating and so are ancient burial mounds. There are mostly round and linear mounds here but the largest are shaped like bears and birds. I stuck to the north unit and went along the Mississippi River which has older and more mounds. The south unit has more bears and all the birds. The bear mounds were interesting, but I would have had to climb a tree to get a good picture. It was hazy out, so the river pictures were not very good either. Although several vultures were soaring along the waterline. There was also a live turkey along my hike that had the longest neck and I kept trying to figure out why there was an emu in the forest. This place is on my list to come back and hike the lower section to see the bird mounds.