From Prineville, OR we headed for John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The 2 hour drive is the epitome of slow boiling a frog as the landscape gradually transitions from crystal blue streams and lush dark green pines to stark red, taupe, yellow, and white striped hills. It was June of 2021 and already hitting 100 degrees…I can’t imagine visiting this park in the summer! Having said that, it is a great day trip.
The park is easily accessible by car/RV. Essentially you drive through the park and into different pull-outs where short walks with reader-boards are available to get up closer to the area’s geology or take in wonderful overlooks. Like an old junker left in the field, these hills are slowly oxidizing. About 33 million years ago iron rich volcanic ash shaped this area and over time the oxidizing irons stained the clay soils forming the rusted hills found here.
Driving through the park it’s difficult to imagine that millions and millions of years ago this was a semitropical forest, but we know this from the diverse fossils found in this region and the museum that displays them is extremely well done.
It’s pretty easy to do both the park drive, a few short hikes from the parking lots, and the museum in a single day. Stay longer only if you intend to do some of the more serious hikes in the park.
