After working my still-healing foot too hard at a Friday night dance class and facing another class Saturday night, I was looking for an interesting outdoor day without a lot of hiking. I'd been meaning to get out to the Painted Hills ever since I first heard of them here months ago.
Warning this is going to be long tale
I got up early and hit the road. There was a bit of ice near Government Camp, but the roads were generally clear. I stopped for a stretch and a quick picture of Jefferson just before Warm Springs.
From there, it was McDonald's in Prineville and straight to the Painted Hills. Highway 26 east of Prineville is gorgeous as it climbs to Ochoco Summit.
The Painted Hills were easy to find and boy, were they worth the 4 hour drive! The lighting was difficult from the main lower approach, so I drove the half mile or so up to the Painted Hills Overlook Trail. Here's the trailhead.
This trail is really a closed road that heads up a small ridge just to the west of the famous view of the Painted Hills. There are all kinds of different angles looking into basin between the two ridges.
There are two free-standing hills to the west. I was lucky enough to catch a small heard of antelope running across the clay of the hill, while a hawk soared overhead.
The areas with real soil were covered with Filaree, False Dandelion and Fiddleneck. A passing butterfly added to the scene.
Next up was the Painted Cove Trail. An artist was busy at work painting the scene.
This quarter mile long trail loops around a freestanding "painted hill". A boardwalk provides the only chance to get up close and personal with a hill made of bentonite. A short side trail leads to a viewpoint of the hill and the nearby lake. There's a patch of Nine-Leaved Desert Parsley on the side trail.
The lake is only a few hundred feet past the trailhead. There were six painters hard at work here, all of them retired and friendly. There were at least two pairs of honkers here, one swimming around and the other guarding a nest.
The Leaf Fossil Loop Trail was next. This is the shortest trail of the bunch. It loops around Leaf Hill, which looks like a pile of brittle, crumbled rock. Over 26,000 fossils were found on this hill in a single season. Today, the hill is off-limits to fossil hunters and protected by a small wooden fence. Several fossils are displayed behind glass.
On the return trip I stopped near the Ochoco Summit to get a few pictures of the thaw. Maybe we'll see this someday in the Cascades.
The last stop of the day was Smith Rock State Park. By now, it was 3:30 and I didn't have time for a hike. I did find the trail I'm checking out next time. It's called the Misery Ridge Trail and it looks aptly named.
I had just enough time to drive home for the dance class!
What do you suppose is around that next bend?