By Mariah Cannon
As someone who has lived in Oregon her whole life and only really started exploring over the last few years, I realize it’s not uncommon for people to have never heard of or visited certain places that are pretty much right outside of out backyard!
So, in this mini guide, I’m going to give you the whole run down on the Painted Hills unit. This will be a part three series as I’ll write about the other two units within the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. I’ll give you everything you need to have a fun and successful trip out East!
The John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is split up into three units – Sheep Rock, Clarno, and Painted Hills. They all offer something so unique and almost other worldly. The unit we’re talking about today – Painted Hills – is the most popular unit with nearly 100,000 visitors annually. And for good reason!
What is a Painted Hill?
What makes up the painted hills is actually very interesting, at least I think so! Basically the painted hills formed slowly overtime mainly in thanks to volcanic ash and pumice that blew East from the Cascade range erupting. This took a lot of time to get these colorful hills we now get to enjoy and it is all genuinely a very sensitive area to human interaction along with natural weather occurrences.
Ash mixed with other sediments that already inhabited the land and then overtime, the ash oxidized and slowly became more of cement like soil that has withheld for years and changed as weather left it’s mark. Revealing these gorgeous “painted hills”.
The colors you’ll find are typically a red/purple and yellow/tan throughout. The reddish layers typically represent a time of more rainfall and overall moisture, while the yellow tones are signs of a drier time, less rainfall and more drought like remnants.
Where are said Painted Hills?
Located a little under 2 hours East of Bend, it makes for the perfect day trip if you’re visiting the Central Oregon area. The closest town to the Painted Hills is Mitchell – a small town with a little mercantile, feed store, café, and brewery. With it being about 15 minutes away. There really isn’t a ton out in this area, aside from some really good swimming holes and fishing along the John Day River.
You could 100% make this and the Sheep Rock Unit mentioned above a whole day adventure, as it’s only an extra hour one way to visit the Sheep Rock Unit.
Entrance
Though it’s a National Monument, it is free to enter the park! I always just bring my America The Beautiful Pass simply because it gives me peace of mind, but you definitely don’t need it here!
The gravel roads throughout the monument are accessible for all types of vehicles, though keep in mind during muddy season, it turns into clay and can be a little tricky.
Best Time to Visit
Weather you’re wanting to visit during the warmer months or in the area during the “ber” months, it will be a treat regardless! I personally recommend visiting in the Fall time, around mid-late September as the weather is typically ideal – less rain, not 100 degrees, and shouldn’t be snow covered quite yet.
If you’re a photographer, the most ideal times to visit are early morning or right around sunset time. You’ll likely have a lot of the area to yourself if you show up in the morning time. The later morning-early afternoon is the busiest time of day for this monument.
Hiking in the Monument
- Painted Hills Overlook is a .6 mile round-trip trail with only 82 feet of elevation gain, it’s rated as easy and is all gravel. Wildflowers surround the trail in the late Spring/early Summer months and it’s a nice little stretch of the legs!
- Carrol Rim Trail is a 1.6 mile hike and the longest in the monument. It gains 374 feet and looks over the monument. If you only have time for one, I recommend it be this one to really be able to see the whole valley and all the colors! This one is my favorite.
- Painted Cove is the most popular area in the monument (bottom picture in collage above) and offers a fun boardwalk section with ample photo opportunities. It’s only .3 of a mile and gains 42 feet of elevation.
- Red Scar Knoll Trail is a .5 mile out and back trail that takes you to an epic vibrant red hill and has some fun features on the trail.
- Leaf Hill Trail is the one trail that has tons of fossils scattered throughout, you cannot take any of them and there’s fences put up to keep people and animals out of there. It’s only .3 miles and gains 22 feet of elevation.
Best Photo Spots in the Monument
- The ultimate photo spot and one you’ll probably see the most of is the Boardwalk portion of trail on the Painted Cove trail.
- One of my favorite spots is towards the end of the monument on the Red Scar Knoll trail simply because the colors look so good against the sage brush.
- On top of the Carrol Rim Trail is super awesome if you go around sunset time for incredible colors while you’re towering over the painted hills.
Enjoy this mini guide on exploring in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument? Be sure to save it for future adventures!
Let’s Get Adventuring!
Mariah
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