Painted Hills at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is located in Oregon and has three units-Clarno, Painted Hills, and Sheep Rock.  I visited the Painted Hills and Sheep Rock area since I was looking for color.  To do all three units, would require more than a day since they are all roughly an hour or more apart.  The main draw to John Day Fossil Beds National Monument are the red and yellow hills.  This area got its color from volcanic ashes and lava.  The Painted Hills area has a couple of short excellent trails: Painted Hill Overlook Trail and Painted Cove Trail.  There is only one restroom in this unit which is located at the Visitor Center so plan accordingly.   Next, I visited the Sheep Rock Unit and went straight to the Thomas Cordon Paleontology Center which holds hundreds of fossils found in this park.  There is also lab area where you can see how scientists preserve, classify, and dig up  fossils.  Back on the trail, I stopped by Island in Time trail in the Blue Basin area to see the ashy blue and green rocks.  This area was the most popular and finding parking was difficult.  Because of that parking issue, I was able to visit other easy trails like Flood of Fire and Story in Stone in the Foree area as well as James Cant Ranch.