Home»Ed Ruttledge Photography»Gallery Showings and Special Projects»2016 - Painted Hills/John Day Fossil Beds NM

From Wikipedia: “The Painted Hills is one of the three units of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, located in Wheeler County, Oregon… Painted Hills is named after the colorful layers of its hills corresponding to various geological eras, formed when the area was an ancient river floodplain. The black soil is lignite that was vegetative matter that grew along the floodplain. The grey coloring is mudstone, siltstone, and shale. The red coloring is laterite soil that formed by floodplain deposits when the area was warm and humid.”

I visited the Painted Hills in June 2016. The light was not perfect – a gray and dull sky. Nevertheless, the vibrant colors stood out!