Travels in America: John Day Fossil Beds, Painted Hills Division

 Our second day in the John Day area had us visit the Painted Hills Division.  I expected there to be a lot more trails to hike and less driving,

but it is certainly worth a visit.  The longest hike we did was about 1 km and had a good view over the area.  See photo to the right.  We pretty much had to drive from site to site and they are unique in their own way.  We were both a little underwhelmed with the experience and made a quick decision to skip out of going to the last area, which contained a picnic site and a sign from what we could glean.  Death Valley is a much better place to visit for a similar experience of "painted hills".  That change in plans led us to a new area in Oregon that we very much enjoyed.  Wait for the next post!

More scenery from the Painted Hills to the left.   The smoke had entirely disappeared by that day.