John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

We did the whole John Day Fossil Beds drive hitting all of the units. We started in Redmond and went north clockwise, hitting the Clarno Unit first, then Sheep Rock, and Painted Hills last. We also stopped in Mitchell to see the Lucky Strike museum and rock shop, which has now been taken over by Cindy's daughter.

Give yourself the whole day to do the drive and you won't regret it. We learned a lot and enjoyed the amazing views.

It was honestly amazing. First time I've ever gone to the west coast and the drive through this area is one of my all time favorites.

Underrated place to be. It’s a great place with an amazing history. This visitors center is also very useful to visit. It’s free but they do have a gift shop. The area has some great hikes and trails, and information signs. A must visit in Oregon!

This is a beautiful and informative park. We visited the Painted Hills and Sheep Rock Units. We went in October and it was not crowded at all. At Painted Hills be sure to do all the hikes. They are not difficult and very pretty. At Sheep Rock, be sure to stop at the visitors center to get informed about the fossils and area.

If you can, I recommend exploring all three units. Plan to spend the day as the units are one to two hours apart and you will want to do short hikes too. . These are good, family friendly hikes (senior with preschool grandson). I also want to complement the rangers on taking the time to answer and educate at the Condon center .

Highly recommend visiting all 3 units as each one has something different to offer. It's free to enter and wasn't crowded in early October. The only thing was it was hard to find water as the spigots where turned off in October so just be prepared. Limited cell service.

This is a fabulous hidden treasure with amazing scenery and fossils in three related but separate locations with an hours drive or more between each. The Painted Hills, Blue Hills and Foree areas have some wonderful short hikes to amazingly colored scenery. It looks like small child went wild with paint brushes.

Outstanding colorful rock formations accessed from excellent hiking trails and fossil exhibits on display in the visitor center are a must at this central Oregon National Monument consisting of three separate units. Recommend the following hiking trails: Clarno Arch (Clarno Unit), Story In Stone, Flood of Fire (Sheep Rock Unit - Foree Area), Island In Time (Sheep Rock Unit- Blue Basin Area), River Trail (Sheep Rock Unit - Cant Ranch), Painted Cove, Painted Hills Overlook, Red Scar Knoll (Painted Hills Unit). All Trails fairly easy. Don't forget the paleontology exhibit at the Condon Visitor Center

This hike was pretty easy. We went in late Sept so the weather was nice and not overly hot. We did the full circle hike and then went into the center. The rocks were beautiful.

Few visit this uniquely beautiful national monument but more should! The interpretive center is very well put together with lots of different displays. It is a great starting point when exploring the park. The park staffing was very helpful in pointing out interesting locations and helped us make an itinerary.

If you get the chance to hike these trails, I certainly recommend it.

Interesting place to visit. Its quite spread out with 3 different units, miles apart. The main visitor center is really nice and the Painted Hills is the best bit to visit. The hiking around here is good and there are some interesting areas with different minerals making the landscape multi-colour

Quite the drive but well worth it! Pictures cannot fully capture the beauty of the Painted Hills and surrounding landscapes. Definitely visit the Painted Hills as close to sunset as possible. The lighting at that time really makes the hills pop with color. We did go in the morning at first and it was a little shadowed and were so glad we came back late afternoon for another peak. We couldn’t stay until sunset as the drive back to Bend where we were staying was hours away. The Thomas Condon Paleontology Center was a very interesting fossil museum with a small gift shop inside; great views of Sheep Rock Unit; a nice full toilet bathroom. Definitely do not climb on the hills; you could see shoe prints of someone who did and it just ruins the beauty of this area…leave no trace. If you can, try to take one of the hikes for views hard to beat! Before you begin your trip, make sure you have a full tank of gas and pack a lunch and bring snacks!

For the Painted Hills area - restrooms are available to the left when you pass the entrance sign. Great views and definitely worth a visit!

Beautiful, expansive, scenic vistas full of hiking trails for all ages. Picnic areas and facilities were open and clean. Signs and information posted along the scenic byway tell of the geologic and paleolithic history of the area. Bald eagles, deer, turkey, quail were all spotted on our two day trip. Make sure you come with a picnic and a full tank of gas as wanting to see around the next corner or over the hill will keep you exploring all day.

Always enjoy visiting the Clarno Unit Palisades and then Painted Hills picnic area. Watch out for the Open Range livestock on the roads.

John Day Fossil Bed National Monument was a great experience! Lots of history & worth a visit!!

Went to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful and cold. Recommend watching from the overlook, instead of the office lot. Wonderful area with short hikes and paths with ADA access.

Great views of the colorful scenery in the Painted Hills unit. Numerous short hikes available to those wishing to do so. But it can get hot here in the summer - it was over 100 degrees when we were here in August, 2020. The visitors center (open, but with limited visitors at any given time during the virus) and restrooms are relatively new, and a virtual oasis in the heat. Overall, a beautiful, well maintained, and enjoyable park; in a desert sort of way.

I didn’t have a lot of expectations going in - I was looking for a quiet place for a long weekend drive from Seattle.

This place blew my mind! I love learning about geology and paleontology - well, general natural history. This felt like an open museum! Visit here and take your kiddos.

Can you imagine that at some point in history, millions of years ago, Central Oregon was a tropical forest?! And there were 3-toed horses? I never imagined the possibility! So, expect to learn a lot of cool things!

This National Monument has 3 units - Sheep Rock, Clarno and Painted Hills. I’d recommend that you visit them in that order even though they’re all miles apart. Start at the Thomas Condon Paleontology center(they open at 10 am) - checkout the many fossils and read up on their descriptions of the history. If you don’t want to read all those paragraphs, watch the documentary at the theater. It is a 20-minute video and very informative! On weekdays, you can watch scientists at work here as they handle fossils!!
Then, proceed to the sheep ranch, Cathedral Rock(there wasn’t a place to pull over and stop the car here, so be prepared to slow down to appreciate this volcanic rock formation) and Foree. The Foree was gorgeous! The blue-green claystone was so pretty!!

Then proceed to the Clarno unit. There are trails from the parking lot. Check them out! There are many cards placed along the trail to explain the history. Walk to the end of the trail and then start reading the cards on your way back to the parking lot, for it to make more sense, if you’ve not visited the Paleontology center.

Finally, stop by the Painted Hills! 😍 These are so pretty! And sunset makes the layers clear as the sun hits these hills at the right angles for some nice photographs! I was told to visit here right after the rain lets up in the evenings for everything to pop!

Oregon is so gorgeous!! And John Day Fossil Bed is a must visit if you’re a geology and natural history enthusiast