Part 3. The Painted Hills.
The tour route from Shaniko on OR-218 heads eastward through Cross Hollows into a remoteness that truly makes you feel as if you have been transported to another time and place.
Today’s journey takes us east to Service Creek on OR-218 and then south on the OR-207 spur to Mitchell in Wheeler County and the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. I made several unsuccessful trips to Service Creek this fall trying to spot the Bighorn Sheep that roam in the area. As you drive the route, keep your eyes peeled because you might get lucky!
The John Day Basin contains three areas that have been preserved as the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The rock formations here preserve a record of plant and animal evolution, changing climates and past ecosystems spanning more than 40 million years.
In 1862 gold was discovered near Canyon City which is a few miles south of the town of John Day in Grant County. Union cavalry troops were used to guard the wagons transporting the gold to ships on the Columbia River. These cavalry men found fossils along the way in the area that is now the fossil beds and collected them. They took their finds to a Congregationalist minister named Thomas Condon in the Dalles who was known as an avid amateur geologist. On seeing the specimens they had collected, Condon recognized them as fossils and received permission from the cavalry to explore the region. Condon recognized the value of the fossil beds and named the region after the John Day River that runs through it. In less than five years from his original discoveries, Condon’s pioneering work attracted major American geologists to the area. Due to his work, Thomas Condon was named the first State Geologist of Oregon in 1872. He left the ministry and assumed a position as a professor of geology at the newly created University of Oregon.
Of the three units of the National Monument, the Painted Hills Unit, located about 9 miles northwest of Mitchell, Oregon, is the most visited with about 75,000 visitors per year. Travel Oregon declared the Painted Hills to be one of the seven wonders of Oregon (the others are the Columbia River Gorge, Crater Lake, Mt. Hood, the Oregon Coast, Smith Rock, and the Wallowas).
The Painted Hills preserve a record of the sequence of past climate changes. It contains a diverse assemblage of leaf fossils ranging from 39-30 million years old termed the Bridge Creek Flora. There is also one area of rock that contains animal fossils dating from 30-27 million years ago.
The colorful bands seen in Painted Hills Unit, clearly illustrate the climate shift from tropical to temperate that occurred between 34 and 32 million years ago. At that time, this area was a river flood plain. The soils here originated from the deposition of layers of volcanic ash from ancient eruptions that, over time, were compacted and solidified into the bands we see today. The soils are technically “paleosols” or ancient soils that were buried and re-exposed through erosive processes. The red bands contain iron-oxide rich, laterite soils that were deposited during a time when the climate was tropically warm and humid having abundant rainfall (33-51″ annually) while the lighter colored yellow/tan/gray bands are mudstone, siltstone, and shale containing soils that developed during a time of lower temperature and precipitation (27-32″ of rain annually) – conditions less conducive to the oxidation of iron to the red oxide. The black colors come from carbon fossilized to lignite (a precursor to coal) from the residue of the vegetative matter that grew along the flood plain. The soil found at the top of Carroll Rim was deposited in a temperate, grassy savannah environment with oaks and maples that prospered about 30 million years ago. Today, the Painted Hills are in a desert landscape with about 12″ of annual rainfall. The decrease in the amount of rain that falls in the area occurred to a great extent from the formation of the Cascade Range as the Pacific Tectonic Plate subducted under the North American Plate. The rising mountains captured rain decreasing the amount reaching the area east of the mountains.
The best way to experience the Painted Hills is to hike one or more of the five short trails that range in length from 0.25 -1.6 miles. Most of these trails are easy walks, and some are accessible.
Trail #1. The Painted Hills Overlook Trail. This is the trail that most people who visit the Painted Hills experience. It is a fairly level 0.5-mile roundtrip that follows a ridge just above multicolored mounds. This is the place where the pictures of the iconic view of the hills are typically taken. For visiting, late afternoon is probably the best time for photographing the hills from the overlook. The colors of the bands are most vivid after rain.
Trail #2. Painted Cove Trail. Due to the fragile nature of the Painted Hills, you cannot walk just anywhere so it is difficult to get a close-up view of the mounds themselves. The Painted Cove Trail is a 0.25-mile roundtrip that gets you up close to some of the vibrant red clay hills via a boardwalk.
This is an easy, accessible trail. If you only have time for one trail other than the overlook, this would be an excellent choice.
Trail #3. Red Scar Knoll Trail. This is another easy 0.25-mile, relatively flat round trip that leads to a close view of a hill of bright yellow and red clay. One of the nice things about the Painted Hills Unit is that although it is a national monument, the trails are open to leashed dogs as well as humans.
Trail #4. Carroll Rim Trail. This is a 1.6-mile round trip that climbs 400 feet from the valley floor to the top of the rim and provides a panorama view of the Painted Hills Unit. This is a steep climb and is not accessible as, in places, the trail is narrow and has a rocky surface.
A section of the trail.
Here you can see a bird’s eye view of the Painted Hills from the top of Carroll Rim.
This is my favorite trail in the Painted Hills Unit. From the rim you can see all the other trail areas as well as views of Sutton Mountain and the surrounding countryside.
Trail #5. Leaf Hill Trail. This is a 0.25-mile roundtrip trail in an area where many fossil leaves have been found. Although this is a very scientifically important area, there is little to see. There are interpretive signs that describe the fossils that have been found, but there are no fossils on display nor are there any colorful mounds to look at. I wanted to do all the hikes available in the unit, but unless you have time to do all the trails, I would skip this one.
If you haven’t made the trip to the Painted Hills, I would definitely encourage you to go there. I do not think you will be disappointed.
