The John Day Fossil Beds

Painted Hills unit

Oregon’s Blue Mountains are very different from the rest of the state. For one thing, they (along with the Klamath Mountains) are far, far older - going back forty million years and more. Most of Oregon is less than 17 million years old.

Along Eastern Oregon’s John Day river are deposits of volcanic tuff containing forty million years’ worth of fossils. They have been studied by geologists for more than a hundred years.

Now a National Monument, there are three units some dozens of miles apart from each other. I went to the one in the middle, the Painted Hills unit.

Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

Another view:

Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

Geologists call these colored soils “paleosols” - basically, ancient soil that is 40+ million years old. It was originally volcanic ash from eruptions to the west of here, about where the Cascade Mountains are now - long before the Cascades existed.

Most of this is off-limits to walking around in, for obvious reasons. Public access would destroy these hills in short order. But there is one spot where they have constructed a trail between a couple of hills, from which you can look at the paleosols up close and personal.

Painted Cove Trail, John Day Fossil Beds

It’s called the Painted Cove trail, and it’s a boardwalk that keeps the paleosols in a pristine condition. It winds between a couple of hills, with interpretive signs along the way to read. It climbs to the top of the hills to a little viewpoint,

Painted Cove trail, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

and then across to the back side of the colored soils,

Back side of the Painted Cove trail

From whence it returns to the parking lot.

And this was all I got to see in Central and Eastern Oregon. After returning to camp, a phone call came in for a job in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Santa Fe! A town filled with history. It’s the oldest state capital in the United States, founded before the USA was a country.

I’d had a good time in Oregon, and I would be back a few years later. But at that juncture, new adventures awaited in a new land.

Next: Seven months in New Mexico