Today we headed for the John Day Fossil Beds. We woke up early (for us) at 6am, had some breakfast, and headed out. Unfortunately, my planning was not so good because we made it a few miles and I realized that we really needed to fill up before heading for the back country. Shelton Wayside Park doesn’t get much traffic because it is pretty remote, on Highway 19 between Fossil and Spray (you’ve never heard of them either?). Spray was too far, and Fossil was a bit out of the way, but we decided to go to Fossil for diesel. The one service station in town was not open at 7:30. So, off we went to Condon.

After the fill-up, we came back toward Shelton and took beautiful back roads to get to the Painted Hills unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. Sadly, I picked the wrong time of day for the best pictures—I had a 50/50 shot and picked early in the day, when the first thing I read in the park brochure when we got there is that they’re best viewed at sunset. I took some shots anyway and hope I got some decent ones.

From Painted Hills we headed to Sheep Rock, stopping at the visitors center for a few minutes, where Ben and John picked up some postcards and “Mammoth,” the plush mammoth.