Painted Hills, Oregon

Painted Hills, Oregon

Lisa, Brian, and Cathy

Townsend’s solitaire (Myadestes townsendi)

Today we took a pretty long drive from Bend to the Painted Hills off of US 26 northwest of Mitchell, Oregon. This is part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. It was an 80+ mile drive north to Redmond and then east through Prineville but it’s a pretty cool place. The main visitor center for the National Monument is another 40 miles or so further along, so we didn’t go there. This is often listed as one of the so called ‘Seven Wonders of Oregon’ although there’s nothing official about that list, which I assume was put together by the tourist bureau. Here’s the list:

• Crater Lake National Park
• Columbia River Gorge
• Oregon Painted Hills
• The Oregon Coast
• Mt Hood
• Smith Rock State Park
• The Wallowa Mountains

We are certainly glad we visited Crater Lake, which I have to agree is in the right spot on the list at number one. Yesterday we went to Smith Rock and I’d probably rank that higher than the Painted Hills, although these are worth a visit. I cannot speak to the other items on the list, not having been to any of them. I suspect I’d rank the Painted Hills either sixth or seventh (since I know nothing about The Wallowa Mountains.

All that being said, we’re glad we came and enjoyed the views. All else being equal, if we traveled to Bend again, we’d return to Smith Rock but probably not to the Painted Hills. We did see (and I did photograph) a Townsend’s solitaire (Myadestes townsendi), a pretty little grey songbird. So that’s something. There are also some trails that we might have hiked that would have made me more likely to want to return, but perhaps I’ll never know.