The Painted Hills

As Heidi mentioned, we were over in eastern Oregon this weekend camping. Our main reason to head over there was to see the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. There are three sections to the monument, the Painted Hills Unit, the Sheep Rock Unit and the Clarno Unit. By far, our favorite was the Painted Hills. Being in that area makes you feel like you're on Mars, it so different than anything I've seen before. The picture above is in an area where you get to walk around in a small section of the hills. I thought the three distinct colors of the hills was really neat, especially next to the sky. I don't usually do this, but I'm going to post two pictures.

This is the more typical shot you see from the Painted Hills. It gives you an idea of how beautiful the area is. Heidi described the hills as looking like "dinosaurs that were sleeping."

We visited both of the other sections of the monument as well. The Sheep Rock Unit also had some interesting terrain that we hiked through, as well as a visitor center with many fossils that have been found in the region. In the Clarno Unit there was a trail you could walk through and see plant fossils in boulders that had fallen off the side of the rim rock above. There wasn't much else at Clarno, but I'd recommend everyone go see the Painted Hills and Sheep Rock.

-G