The notebook of Painted Hills et John Day
Listen to the wind tell the heights.
Colour-stred and fossil-shaped hills at the heart of a semi-desert Oregon.
At your own pace
Identity summary
2 to 5 days
Spring · Summer · Autumn · Winter
Recommended car
Desert · Nature · Heritage
Variable accessibility
Sweet rhythm
General presentation
Painted Hills et John Day
Colour-stred and fossil-shaped hills at the heart of a semi-desert Oregon.
Painted Hills, Sheep Rock and Thomas Condon Paleontology Center are the most telling landmarks of Painted Hills and John Day. Together they form a destination where desert areas, natural spaces and heritage meet, with atmospheres that change over the stages rather than a single uniform decor.
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For a stay of 2 to 5 days, a quiet rhythm works well. Also to be anticipated: conditions to be checked according to the season. A car is usually the easiest way to connect different sectors. Accessibility varies from site to site and deserves to be checked step by step.
Strengths and constraints
Strengths
- Painted Hills
- Sheep Rock
- Thomas Condon Paleontology Center
Before you choose
- Car often useful
- Conditions to be checked by season
Places worth visiting
A selection to start dreaming and organizing the stay — not an exhaustive list of everything there is to see.
Place indismissible
Painted Hills
To Painted Hills, the hills seem painted in successive layers: rust red, ochre, black, pale gold. The short paths and viewpoints better reveal undulations after light rain or when the low sun strengthens the strata, visible traces of old soils and fossilized climates.
Place indismissible
Sheep Rock
Sheep Rock Shows another side of John Day Fossil Beds, larger and greener, with blue-green cliffs, badlands and the John Day River below. Road stops and short trails show the volcanic layers where many fossils of mammals and plants have been found.
Culture and heritage
Thomas Condon Paleontology Center
The Thomas Condon Paleontology Center provides context to the colourful landscapes of John Day Fossil Beds. Behind its windows, fossils of primitive horses, rhinoceros, leaves and skulls tell the ancient climates of Oregon; the windows on the laboratory make scientific work more concrete than a simple collection.
Place indismissible
Clarno Palisades
In Clarno Palisades, high volcanic walls rise above a dry landscape of sage and juniper. Short trails pass near fossilized trunks and forms taken from the rock, remains of a subtropical forest buried by very old flows and lahars.
Practical tips
This information helps know if the destination matches the planned trip before starting a fuller search.
To go further
More activities
Restaurants, walks, culture, leisure and outings to search without leaving the destination card.
The nearest destinations
The closest ideas on the map, to extend your trip.
Similar destinations
Same landscapes and the same pace of travel, elsewhere in the world.
