John Day National Monument

John Day / Day 1

While we were excited to go to the John Day Fossil Beds, it pays to do your research first! John Day National Monument is actually made up of three different “Units;” Sheep Rock, Painted Hills and Clarno. These areas all have their own distinct location and the twisting winding roads make traveling the distance much longer, especially with an RV towing a car! We decided to split our time over three days to visit each of the areas, including the town of Fossil, where we hoped to dig for fossils.

We had originally planned to stay at Priest Hole Recreation Site as it was only 6 miles away to the John Day Unit we were most interested in visiting the first day: the Painted hills. However, after reaching Priest Hole, we realized we aren’t quite the type of people to be so off-grid. The road down was more suited for a 4×4 rather than a RV and our Chevy Orlando. It was one lane most of the way, gravel, with huge potholes, and quite steep. I am not a nervous driver ordinarily (except in the deep snow) but I knew that neither of our vehicles were made for this and we had absolutely no phone reception in case of an emergency. It took over 30 harrowing minutes to drive those 6 miles, and it was not a drive I wanted to do at night in a panic.

Priest Hole Recreation Site was beautiful, right next to a river that pooled idyllically just a stone’s throw away from the campsite. Everyone was excited to strip down for a swim however, excitement was tempered when we found what looked to be fresh Mountain lion tracks along the riverbed. We decided to listen to those nagging feelings of isolation and head to a campsite that was a little less remote. I just couldn’t shake the doomsday feelings of “what if,” which included rattlesnake bites, Julian falling and busting his already broken collarbone right out of his skin, an asthma attack, oh – or a close encounter with a cougar! Anxiety is a difficult companion in remote locations.

On the way to Fish House Inn & RV in Dayville, we stopped at the Painted Hills Unit and did both the Overlook trail and the Painted Cove trail. Both were short and easily completed in 30 minutes each – the perfect length for our energy at that point in the day. Plus, it was 37 C (99 F) with very little shade.

Despite the long day (we had left Salem, OR at 7:30am) the Painted hills were worth the wait. Layers of lilac, grey, tan, reds, browns and orange rose up in mounds just high enough to get lost in. The colours are created by the oxidization of rust in the soil, layered with volcanic ash and sediment from lahars and exposed by erosion over time.  The hills are beautiful and otherworldly. They look damp but the surface is dry to the touch and cracked. Cole commented that the surrounding landscape were what he pictured Mars to look like.

^{_{The hills are beautiful & other worldly…}}

Fish House Inn was delightful, albeit a lot farther away than we had anticipated on our already long day. The RV traveling speed was double what was predicted on Google maps due to the steep windy roads through the Ochoco National Forest. This was good insight for us as we realized some of our longer planned 5 hour drives would end up being 7-8 hours which meant we couldn’t also plan a few-hour activity stop along the way.

John Day / Day 2

In the morning we did our first OT sessions online. The kids did great and participated well, but I felt overwhelmed and unprepared running between troubleshooting technical difficulties, facilitating kids in session, kids doing school that needed help, kids winding down from session that needed to regroup, kids who were bored wanting to play, hungry kids and trying to touch base with the OT. The three older kids all do OT back to back and Cole was working during the 3 hours so wasn’t able to help at all. Next time I need to have everything in place, a few less things on my plate and lower expectations so that I don’t feel as frazzled. Fortunately, the campground had a sweet little garden and chicken coop right next to our spot so the boys felt right at home and kept entertained by chooks and camp kitten.

Fairly close to our campsite in Dayville was the Sheep Rock Unit location of John Day. We headed over after lunch to the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center where the boys and I watched a video about how the land in the area was formed over time due to a combination of volcanic activity and changing climates, influencing the ecosystem including the plants and animals that used to live here long ago, now evidenced in fossils. The fossil gallery was incredible and got us all excited for our fossil hunt planned the next day. Asher in particular was in awe, I loved to see his mind at work thinking about the history of these incredible land formations. We also explored the Historic Cant Ranch and walked both the River Trail and Sheep Rock Overlook Trails, each being about half a mile or 1 km.

A 100-year-old orchard stood at the back of the Historic homestead and we were delighted to see they had their sprinklers running. The kids took great delight in running through the sprinklers under the centennial arbors.  

John Day / Day 3

It took us about 1.5 hr to drive to Fossil, OR. Rumour has it that there was a public dig site located on a hill behind the town’s Wheeler High School, specifically, on the hill behind their baseball diamond. I was a little skeptical that this was true, but the kids were so excited to go hunt for fossils that we just went. Cole has visited the Rock Hound in Victoria, BC to pick up some tools to help with excavation, so we were armed with small pick axes, rock hammers,  screwdrivers, and a regular hammer.

The folk lore held up. Directly behind Wheeler High’s athletic field was a nondescript hill and a trail marker admonishing fossil hunters not to throw rocks into the field. There were actually students participating in gym class while we walked alongside trying to look inconspicuous. Several exposed dig sites along the hillside revealed where other fossil seekers had tried their luck. We squatted down in their hollows and tore away at the crumbling ground with tools, exposing shards of rock easily pulled out by eager fingers. We were only there around 10 minutes before Cole yelled out, “I found one” and we all crowded around to see the millions old maple leaf bearing its witness in the sedimentary rock.

The best spot was in fact, directly behind the baseball diamond where each of us found many fossil treasures. It was like finding magic in the rocks. Plants and tree matter that left their imprint, their quiet little insistence of existence from years before our imagination could stretch. We found so many fossils, we had to put some back – which seems inconceivable! But so does pulling history from the side of a hill behind a high school’s baseball diamond.

In the end, we saved just our favorites – a fern, a bone, both the winged seeds and leaves from a maple tree, spidery threads of a broad flat leaf and a few more.

On our way out of town we stopped for a quick hike at the last of the John Day units; Clarno. We started at the Geologic Time Trail and did a quick wander around the Trail of Fossils, each about 0.25 mile or a little less than half a km. Just enough to stretch our legs before the long drive to Bend, OR.

Towering above us on our walk, the magnificent Palisades kept stealing our gaze away from finding fossils within the fallen boulders. I’ve never seen such incredible rock formations so massive in size and so close in proximity to where I stand quite insignificantly!

All of these stories told by rocks wakens me to recognize again that the earth is a living breathing entity that has changed so much through time. These changes leave marks, memories, their permanent reminders of what was lithographed within. The similarities between people, and the earth we inhabit sometimes catch me off guard, yet this parallel resonates with me so deeply, I feel thankful for it.