Field Trip: The Painted Hills

Story and Photo by Don

Tucked away along a gravel road outside the small town of Mitchell, Oregon, lies a wonderland of vivid color, texture, and form. The Painted Hills Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in central Oregon brings inspiring beauty and brilliance to an otherwise unassuming neighboring landscape.

These remarkably colorful hills stimulate the imagination, giving the appearance of a painter’s canvas as if endowed with the grace of free-wheeling brush strokes forming horizontal stratifications of red, yellow, and gold with accents of vertical black. Surely an acclaimed artist must be behind this!

A variety of trails wind among the formations, including the beautiful Carroll Rim Trail and the Painted Hills Overlook Trail. While the Painted Hills Unit’s location is remote and distant for most visitors, this is also part of its beauty. Owing to its “middle of nowhere” setting, this can be a lonely place, although the evening light tends to draw intrepid photographers seeking to capture the rich hues at sunset.