Tuesday, May 10th
We left early in the morning at 6 AM and made the long drive to the John Day River Area. We arrived just before noon.
At the Sheep Rock Unit, we visited the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center where we toured the museum and Sonya earned her Junior Ranger Award.
We then hiked the Island in Time trail (1 mile) where many fossils have been found. Many exhibits and replicas were found along the trail.
At this point, Sonya was exhausted. She conked out in the car, so I decided to check into our Teepee at Clyde Holliday State Recreation Site. As you can see, she happily slept:
The rest of the day, we walked around the park, went out for dinner, and watch Tangled on our portable DVD player.
Wednesday, May 11th
Sonya woke up nice and early the next morning (6:30 AM) so we got a good jump on the day. We quickly packed up our gear and headed out.
Our first stop of the day was at the Painted Hills unit.
We hiked the Painted Hills Overlook (0.5 miles) and the Painted Cove (0.25 miles) trails. As you can see, the hills are gorgeous.
We then continued our journey to the Clarno unit. Here are the Palisades where many important fossil finds were located.
We hiked all three trails (about a mile total). We saw fossils in the rocks, learned about the geology of the region, and saw a great view of the valley.
Once again, Sonya was exhausted and we had already seen all three units. She once again fell asleep and so I started my trip home. She woke up 25 minutes before we arrived home.
It was a great trip. My only regret was that Karren couldn't make it also.
