South Dakota’s biggest city sits on billion-year-old pink stone and a roaring waterfall

It’s the Great Plains’ best-kept secret

Sioux Falls doesn’t sound like a place that would stop you in your tracks.

It’s South Dakota’s largest city, about 209,000 people, sitting where Interstates 29 and 90 cross in the rolling hills of the eastern plains.

But the Big Sioux River drops over ancient pink rock right in the middle of town, and people have come to this spot for thousands of years because of it.

The waterfalls gave the city its name, and they’re just the start of what you’ll find here.

The pink bedrock under your feet is a billion years old

Glaciers carved the falls about 14,000 years ago during the last ice age, pushing the Big Sioux River into the path it follows today.

All that moving water exposed Sioux quartzite, a pink stone deposited more than a billion years ago. That makes it some of the oldest exposed rock in the state.

Harder than granite, the quartzite became the building material of choice in the late 1800s after railroads arrived.

Many of those quartzite buildings still stand, and they give the city a look you won’t find anywhere else in the Midwest.

Watch 7,400 gallons per second thunder over Falls Park

Falls Park covers more than 128 acres just north of downtown, and the river drops about 100 feet across the length of the falls. That’s an average of 7,400 gallons of water per second going over pink quartzite.

You can watch it from multiple platforms or climb a five-story observation tower for a wider view of the falls and the city skyline beyond.

The ruins of the Queen Bee Mill, a seven-story quartzite flour mill from 1881, stand along the riverbank. Grab lunch at the Falls Overlook Cafe inside a 1908 hydroelectric plant with water crashing right outside.

Eighty sculptures line the sidewalks downtown

SculptureWalk puts about 80 sculptures by artists from around the world along the downtown streets, running from the Washington Pavilion all the way to Falls Park.

It’s the largest annual public sculpture exhibit on the planet, and every piece changes each year. So even if you came last summer, the walk looks completely different now.

You don’t pay a dime. Just stroll the sidewalks while you shop and eat, and the art finds you.

A steel arc leaps 80 feet over the Big Sioux River

The Arc of Dreams stretches nearly the length of a football field across the Big Sioux River between 6th and 8th streets.

South Dakota Artist Laureate Dale Lamphere designed it with a double helix pattern inspired by a blade of prairie grass.

Right at the center, a 15-foot gap sits about 80 feet above the water, representing the leap every dreamer takes. At night, millions of color combinations light up the stainless steel over the river.

The city finished it in July 2019, and it became the signature landmark almost overnight.

Snow monkeys and penguins on the Great Plains

The Great Plains Zoo spreads across 45 acres with more than 1,000 animals from about 137 species, 24 of them endangered.

You’ll walk past tigers, rhinos, grizzly bears, giraffes, and penguins before you reach the award-winning snow monkey exhibit. The Australian section has kangaroos, wallabies, emus, and New Guinea singing dogs.

Inside, the Delbridge Museum of Natural History holds more than 150 mounted animals in a rare collection. The zoo opened in 1963 and stays open 361 days a year.

Touch a shark, then walk through 800 butterflies

The Butterfly House and Aquarium sits in Sertoma Park, and the second you step inside the 3,600-square-foot conservatory, more than 800 free-flying butterflies surround you in a steady 80 degrees.

It’s also the only public saltwater aquarium in the Dakotas, with hundreds of fish and coral species in over 10,000 gallons of habitat.

You can reach into the interactive touch pool and feel sharks and stingrays glide under your fingers.

The Butterfly House merged with the Great Plains Zoo in 2023, and now both run as the Sioux Falls Zoo and Aquarium on two campuses.

Three floors of hands-on science in a quartzite high school

The Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science fills a former high school built of Sioux quartzite, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Inside, the Kirby Science Discovery Center takes up three floors with more than 100 hands-on exhibits covering space, dinosaurs, weather, agriculture, and water science.

The Visual Arts Center rotates exhibits from local, regional, and national artists.

Down the hall, an 1,800-seat concert hall hosts Broadway touring shows and symphony performances, and the Sweetman Planetarium runs stargazing shows and immersive space films.

Bike 36 miles of flat paved trail along the river

The Big Sioux River Recreation Trail runs a 19-mile paved loop right through the city, following the river past Falls Park, neighborhood green spaces, and quiet stretches along the diversion canal.

Additional spurs push the total system to about 36 miles, connecting parks across Sioux Falls. The trail stays flat the whole way, so bikers, runners, walkers, and rollerbladers all share it.

City crews maintain the paths year-round, winter included, so you can get out even when snow covers the plains.

Murals, a battleship outline, and a senator’s parlor for free

The Old Courthouse Museum, built between 1889 and 1893 from native Sioux quartzite, fills three floors with regional history and doesn’t charge admission.

Look up and you’ll see 16 large murals painted between 1915 and 1917 by Norwegian immigrant Ole Running, showing early Dakota life.

A few miles away, the Pettigrew Home and Museum preserves the 1889 Queen Anne home of South Dakota’s first senator, Richard Pettigrew, also free.

Then there’s the USS South Dakota Battleship Memorial, where a full-size concrete outline of the 680-foot ship sits alongside original artifacts, including a 94-ton gun barrel and an 18-ton bronze propeller.

Climb quartzite spires and walk where the Oneota traded

Palisades State Park sits a short drive northeast of town, where 1.2-billion-year-old Sioux quartzite spires rise 50 feet above Split Rock Creek.

Four hiking trails wind through the formations, and rock climbers come from across the region to scale them.

About 10 miles southeast, Good Earth State Park at Blood Run holds National Historic Landmark status as one of the oldest sites of long-term human habitation in the country.

Oneota peoples, including the Omaha, Ponca, Ioway, and Otoe, gathered and traded here from about 1300 to 1700 AD. Six miles of trails cross river views, woodlands, and open prairie.

Ski 14 runs in winter, hike three loops in summer

Great Bear Recreation Park covers more than 220 acres just minutes from downtown, and it flips with the seasons.

Winter brings 14 downhill ski trails, a terrain park, a tubing park, and four miles of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing paths.

When the snow melts, a four-mile nature trail system with three loops takes you through hills and valleys with long views of the surrounding country.

It’s the largest park in the Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation system, and you can reach it from the city center in about 10 minutes.

Explore Sioux Falls, South Dakota

You can start your visit at Falls Park, located at 131 E. Falls Park Drive in Sioux Falls.

The park is free to enter and open daily from 5 a.m. to midnight, year-round. Climb the five-story observation tower for a wide view of the falls and the city beyond, then walk the platforms along the river.

Many of the city’s top draws, including SculptureWalk, the Arc of Dreams, the Washington Pavilion, and the Old Courthouse Museum, sit within easy walking distance of each other downtown.

The Sioux Falls Regional Airport is just about three miles northwest of the city center, roughly a 10-minute drive.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• 91% of Americans Plan to Travel in 2026
• This Epic Oklahoma Park Cost $465 Million and Everything Is Free
• Disney’s Dining Plan Faceplant Is the Funniest Theme Park Drama of 2026