Tag: Fossils

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Layers of Color

Taking a break at the ‘overlook’

It has been some time since we visited Painted Hills, so this week we spent a day walking trails and taking pictures, very touristy of us.

The Painted Hills Unit gets a lot of hype on the internet  .  .  .  heck, it’s listed as one of the 7 Wonders of Oregon.

We are regular visitors to all the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument ‘units’. But this is perhaps our most photographed.

The stratification that gives the “hills’ distinct layers presents differently depending on the season, as well as time of day.

Our afternoon visit was on a clear day, but there had been a week of rain.

These elements combined to offer some very photogenic views.

 

Even a quick swing into the Painted Hills is worth the time. As such, it gets worked into many different road trips. Frequent readers of the blog will recognize that.

Usually these excursions are short photo sorties to an overlook about a mile in from the junction of Burnt Ranch and Bear Creek roads.

We expanded that typical visit this week with some trail walks past other exibit areas.

Took a quick pass around a fenced off mound of leaf fossils.

We’re kind of leaf fossil snobs, you see we dug samples when you could still just park at Fossil High School and collect.

Spent a bit more time on the out and back trail at Red Hill.

The view from the Red Hill trail

Not as visually stunning as the overlook hills. It’s a lone mound of red capped with green.

There is a texture to the surface as well as color

It’s the surrounding landscape that gives the site an ancient look. Did manage to find a lot of photo ops.

The afternoon sun on the painted hills

We enjoyed ourselves to the point of skipping a trip to Tiger Brewing in Mitchell, so as to avoid night driving. Will be swinging back here again.

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A Journey Through Time

The upper John Day River Valley, home to The Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

We spent the last few weeks of fall exploring the John Day River. With its headwaters near Baker City, the John Day flows unobstructed for 250 plus miles across the state, eventually spilling into the Columbia River, just east of Biggs.

Over the centuries the John Day River has carved open the land to expose ancient history.

Ironically, it’s namesake, an unlucky fur trapper, didn’t travel the river, but rather was robbed at its confluence with the Columbia.

The middle section winds through worldrenowned paleontology sites. The state has branded these routes “The Journey Through Time Scenic Byway”. Perfect for a daytrip.

These blue-grey badlands are an incredibly cool place called The Blue Basin
Trail leading from the Thomas Condon Visitor Center

Our day starts by heading north and east on US-26, about 25 miles past Mitchell, where the road meets up with the John Day River at OR 19.

From here, we follow the river north through the Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds . . . . with a mandatory stop at the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center.

We are on the John Day Hwy, headed north through the eastern section of the fossil beds. It quickly becomes apparent the Painted Hills aren’t the only uniquely colored earth mounds in Central Oregon. Along the length of this drive cliffwalls shine in hues of blue, green, and red.

We’ll be back to try smallmouth bass and steelhead fishing on the John Day River

At Kimberly, we turn west. For 20 miles the road follows the river, offering numerous public access points along the route.

At Service Creek, the river continues to the west, across mostly private land. We turn south on OR 207, skirting around the eastern edge of Sutton Mountain, to the east of the Painted Hills unit, dropping into the town of Mitchell. At this point we’re back on US-26 and headed home. The day has been spent exploring uniquely colored cliffs and stopping to enjoy rare public access to one of Oregon’s wild rivers.

 

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Fossils, rocks and turkeys

Being retired we find time to embrace certain concepts or more like Rules to Live By. They help us focus on what’s really important and among them are:

    • Fun will be had by all
    • Live life like my dog 
    • Housework never supersedes fun

However, today we plan to use the Never Go Back The Same Way We Came rule. After a wonderful morning and lunch at Spring Basin Wilderness, we continue our exploration of the area.

We head along a scenic drive to explore the prehistoric past of Oregon and stop at the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. It is located 18 miles west of the town of Fossil, Oregon.

The Palisades are the most prominent landform and are ancient mudflows.

The trailhead is located along Highway 218. The Trail of Fossils (¼ mile loop) is the only trail in the park where visitors can easily see fossils in the rocks. Large boulders strewn below the Palisades contain dozens of visible plant fossils. We glimpse fossilized plants along the cliff walls as well … when suddenly we hear a strange “gobble” sound. I kid you not! We grab the binoculars and sure enough it’s a flock of wild turkeys. What a perfect end to a perfect day.

Sure, we get home late. But luckily we’ve put into practice our Always have dinner ready and waiting after a long day on the road rule.  On the menu, Minestrone Soup with toasted baguette. Yeah … these are rules we can live by.