John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
National Monument · Kimberly, Oregon
A 13,944-acre monument scattered across three widely separated units in eastern Oregon. It protects one of the most continuous and well-preserved fossil records of the Cenozoic Era (the Age of Mammals). The monument is famous for the otherworldly, vibrant layers of the Painted Hills, the towering blue-green badlands of Sheep Rock, and the ancient mudflows of the Clarno Unit.
32651 Highway 19, Kimberly, Oregon, 97848, United States
FREE and open year round, dawn to dusk, with no entrance fee at any of the three units. The Thomas Condon Paleontology Center at the Sheep Rock unit generally runs 10 AM to 5 PM and closes in winter and on major holidays. ⚠ THE MONUMENT IS THREE SEPARATE UNITS SPREAD ACROSS ROUGHLY 80 MILES OF EASTERN OREGON and there is no road that links them directly: Sheep Rock on Highway 19, Painted Hills near Mitchell, and Clarno west of Fossil. Seeing two in a day is comfortable; seeing all three is a long day of driving. ⚠ THE UNPAVED APPROACH ROADS TURN TO IMPASSABLE CLAY WHEN WET.
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