John Day Fossil Beds, Painted Hills, and Eastern Oregon

We took advantage of the long weekend and did something we’ve been wanting to do since moving to Oregon over a decade ago: visit the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument . First, a little bit of background from the NPS website: John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is comprised of more than 14,000 acres within three separate units located in eastern Oregon: Sheep Rock , Painted Hills , and Clarno . The three units of the monument hold some of the best fossil bearing locations within the larger John Day Fossil Beds, which cover most of eastern Oregon. You will find no dinosaurs here; this area was underwater during that time. The John Day Fossil Beds preserve plant and animal fossils from most of the Age of Mammals and Flowering Plants, covering a time period from 44 million years ago until 7 million years ago. With such a vast span of time covered in one place, this area provides unparalleled insight into how the world as we know it came to be. I have to admit that despite wanting to visit, I wasn’t entirely sure what was in store for this trip due to some misconceptions or preconceived notions I had of the place, and Eastern Oregon in general. Secondly, we took my electric vehicle to save on costs. While things were mostly fine in this regard, there were some stretches in the middle that gave me some range anxiety, mostly because it was pretty hot out and we ended up using the air conditioning a lot, particularly if we had to leave the pup in the car for a little bit (with the car in Dog Mode). This is the route we ended up taking: We ended up staying The Dalles at Cousins Country Inn. Affordable, good breakfast (not free), pool, not fancy, allows dogs. There’s also superchargers onsite, which was really convenient. We took the kids to Sorosis Park, a really great urban park with beautiful views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood. They had disc golf and pickle ball courts there, trails, and nice playground equipment. It seemed like a great resource for people living in The Dalles, but was also a nice break from the hotel when the kids needed to burn off some energy. Thankful for the above destination charger we found along the way. Eastern Oregon doesn’t have many public charging stations.