John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, in north central Oregon, contains fossils representing nearly 50 million years of geologic time during the Eocene, Oligocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene epochs. The 14,014-acre site, comprising three noncontiguous units known as Sheep Rock, Painted Hills, and Clarno, provides a broadly revealing and world-renowned cross-section of plant and animal fossils from a variety of climatic types, ranging from ice age to tropical. Discovered about 125 years ago but not established as a monument until 1974, the site is named for a 19th-century explorer. The monument offers short, self-guided walking tours.