Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild
A nature trail through an outdoor art exhibit
Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild is an outdoor art exhibit through the woods in Lincoln, MT, featuring unique, larger than life works of art created with natural and industrial materials to reflect the community's mining, logging, and ranching heritage.
Features: Sculptures, benches along the trail, and a picnic area.
Accessibility info and site description: Blackfoot Pathways is located on the east side of Lincoln off of Hwy 200. The parking lot is graveled with no accessible parking, and there are two accessible restrooms and a large picnic area. This park is free to visit, but they do accept donations. Donation boxes can be found near the restrooms and at the entrance.
Nature trails wind through the woods to the various sculptures on display. There is a map at the entrance showing which trails are accessible and which are not accessible, and signs throughout the park to help guide your visit. The wheelchair accessible trails are flat, 3 to 4 feet wide, and made of gravel. The non-accessible trails are more narrow (under 3 feet), made of dirt, and have some bumps, depressions, and areas of unevenness. Backless benches are available throughout the park, many of which are on the trail near the sculptures, and some benches are tucked away in the vegetation off trail. Each sculpture has an interpretive sign with the artist's name and an explanation of the artwork. Total distance to visit all the sculptures at the park is about a mile.
My experience: Sculpture in the Wild is a really interesting and unique place to visit. The size of the sculptures is impressive, and some of them are quite eerie amidst the backdrop of the woods. It's an 80 minute drive from Missoula, but well worth a visit.
The gravel on the trails is the flat river rock type of gravel that is much easier to navigate in a wheelchair than the chunky, sharp gravel used in other places around Missoula. Additionally, the non-accessible dirt trails, while being more narrow and somewhat bumpy, are not considerably different from the accessible trails and may still be manageable with a wheelchair.
The trails through the woods start with clear signs and trail markers, then somewhere in the middle it starts to get confusing with multiple trail options to go to the various sculptures spread throughout the woods, and it becomes hard to tell which are the accessible trails, non accessible trails, and which are just game trails. I didn't find the map to be particularly helpful while I was there, because the sculpture names and symbols are not always intuitive, and not all trails and sculptures are listed.
Lastly, note that the level of peace and quiet of this location will depend on luck and timing. The road noise is minimal, but this spot seems to be popular for many families with vocal young children. There also appears to be a disc golf course that goes through the entirety of the park, so fair warning that your peaceful walk admiring artwork could potentially be interrupted by a game of folf.
Overall, Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild is worth the long drive from Missoula to see these unique, larger than life artistic structures in the wild!
For more infomation, visit:
http://www.sculptureinthewild.com/
Find the sculpture trail map here:
http://www.sculptureinthewild.com/sculpture-park-map.html
