Upper Sioux Agency State Park

About Upper Sioux Agency State Park

The Upper Sioux State Park is a national park in Upper Sioux County of the US Department of Agriculture in South Dakota. The park was founded to preserve and interpret the remains of the old agency grounds.

The park covers 1,280 hectares and offers a variety of scenic views of the Upper Sioux and its wooded slopes. In addition to these views, visitors can enjoy a wide range of hiking trails open to the public, as well as a number of picnic spots. The park also offers huge slides and hills for winter fun and it offers an extensive network of trails, from the main trail to a series of small trails to wooded slopes and even a small lake with waterfalls.

The park landscape is interspersed with different shades of red, green, blue, yellow, orange, red and yellow. Scattered beech and oak trees are among the oldest trees in the parks, as are a variety of other tree species such as elm, birch, pine and oak.

The Minnesota River runs through the northern boundary of the park and the rugged scenic beauty of the river valley can be admired on hiking trails and prairie hills.

For tens of thousands of years, glaciers have been spreading and retreating over central Minnesota, covering it with snow and ice, as well as ice sheets from the Great Lakes region.

These glaciers leave behind a plateau known as a glacial drift, covered with granite and gneiss. The Upper Sioux State Park is located on the plateau of this glacial drift and the last glacier to retreat was its meltwater forming Lake Agassiz in what is now the Red River Valley. The meltwater from the lake flows into an existing river valley that forms the Warren Glacier.

In many places the valley is cut wide and deep into the rock by rocks, and in some places deep enough to cause erosion.

When Lake Agassiz receded, the water stopped flowing south, and all that remained was the tiny river that we now call the Minnesota River. The Minnesota River, which originates in Big Stone Lake State Park, crosses the center of Minnesota and originates from the Mississippi River near St. Paul.

Redwingers, deer and other waterfowl often hunt insects on the gravel banks and in the mudflats along the river. On the banks of the river, visitors can fish for trout and look for birds of prey such as ducks, turkeys, geese, peregrine falcons, eagles, owls, falcons and more.

The 1851 Des Sioux Traverse Treaty moved the Dakota Indians from Iowa to Minnesota to a reservation stretching from Big Stone to Fort Ridgely in the Minnesota River Valley, 20 miles wide and from Fort Ridgely to the Iowa River in Minnesota. Bald eagles hibernate in and around Minneapolis - St. Paul subway station, bald eagles, red-tailed falcons and other birds of prey catch aircurrents in this valley.

The Yellow Medicine Agency was destroyed in the summer of 1862 during the U.S. Dakota conflict and was established to administer the terms of the contract.

The Upper Sioux Agency State Park exists to preserve the old agency grounds and provide recreational opportunities in the scenic Minnesota River Valley. About one block south, the Granite Falls runs through a series of steep, rocky cliffs and steep cliffs overlooking the Upper Sioux.

The first three entrances to the park lead to a riding stable, the second entrance leads to the main entrance of the park and the last entrance to a campground. Turn left on 67 and drive 8 miles to this park entrance, then right on Highway and left on U.S. Highway 67.