Tippet Rise to Offer Tours Focused on Region's Geologic and Paleontologic History
Poised at the convergence of two vastly different regions, the Beartooth Mountains and the Great Plains, Tippet Rise Art Center is home to a unique combination of geologic and paleontologic features. Thanks to the organization’s partnership with the Yellowstone Bighorn Field Association (YBRA)—located south of Red Lodge, Montana—Tippet Rise will offer Geo-Paleo Tours for the second year in a row. These tours allow guests to learn about and explore the art center’s geologic and paleontologic histories through landmarks and features scattered across the art center’s 10,260 acres. These features not only offer clues to the geologic processes that formed this extraordinary region, they also offered inspiration to the artists who created the site-specific sculptures nestled into the canyons and perched atop the hills at Tippet Rise.
The tours will be led by representatives of the YBRA, lecturers with extensive academic knowledge of and many years of field research in the region’s paleontology (the fossil record stretches back for eons in Montana, from small marine life to enormous dinosaur bones and more recent mammals), structural geology (the distribution of rocks and how different strata lay on top of one another), and other topics.
2018’s Geo-Paleo Tours take place on five consecutive Thursdays beginning July 26 and run from 9AM-1PM. Space is limited, and advanced reservations are required. Tours go on sale Monday, July 9. The cost is $10.00 per person and free for anyone 21 and under. Tour details and reservations are available on the Tippet Rise website at tippetrise.org/tours.
Touring the Tippet Rise sculptures
The art center’s third season begins Friday, June 29 with Friday, Saturday and Sunday sculpture tours. Visitors can explore Tippet Rise and its breathtaking sculptures by shuttle van, or via nine miles of hiking and biking trails that meander through the art center’s canyons and hills. Van tours cost $10.00 per person and are free for anyone 21 and under; hiking and bicycling tours are free of charge. Whether touring by foot, bicycle or van, space is limited, and reservations must be made in advance. For more information and to register, visit tippetrise.org/tours.
Other news from the art center
The trail system at Tippet Rise continues to expand! Over the winter, a one-mile pathway was built to connect the Cottonwood Campus, where the Olivier Music Barn and other structures stand, with the trails that lead to the art center’s monumental sculptures. The new path begins at Patrick Dougherty’s Daydreams and meanders along a gentle rise through a grassy meadow.
