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Thursday, March 4, 2021 • ThE BuLLETIN
Oregon vistas provide a Martian feel
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MAKENZIE WHITTLE • The Bulletin
R
ecent images from Mars might have you longing to blast off and explore the final frontier for yourself. But faster than any travel for a continuing mission,
you can explore these Oregon vistas to give you that spacey feeling, no astronaut training required.
PAINTED HILLS
Probably the most “out there” view you’ll
get in Oregon, the Painted Hills is regarded
as one of the state’s seven wonders.
Part of the John Day Fossil Beds National
Monument, these colorful hills made of pa-
leosols, or ancient soils, tell their geologic
story on each hillside with every color in-
dicating a different ancient climate. This is
also a place where hundreds of varieties of
leaf and nut fossils have been found indicat-
ing the more temperate life that thrived here
around 33 million years ago.
The best trail to get that Martian experi-
ence is along the Painted Cove Trail. Here
wooden, raised boardwalks wind through
the deep red hills giving visitors that up-
close look at these beautiful hills.
The stunning hills are incredibly fragile so
stay on designated trails while visiting and
take only pictures.
CLARNO
The boardwalk trail and the red vibrant hills on the Painted Cove Trail.
The Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil
Beds National Monument is also the least
visited of the three designated areas of the
monument. Located 18 miles west of Fossil,
the smaller site has four trails that stretch
below the towering palisades that have been
eroded by time and wind.
Like all of the units, this one also is home
to many animal and plant fossils some of
which can clearly be seen in the large boul-
ders along the sides of the trail. These are
left from a semi-tropical forest that existed
here 44 million years ago and was swept up
in volcanic mudflows, called lahars and de-
posited here.
The palisades are eroded lahar deposits
with striking red colorations that deepen in
the rain.
The unit’s Geologic Time Trial has signs
posted beside it that indicate the changing
in time with each food representing 37,000
years which makes a great tool in visualizing
how much time has passed.
ALVORD DESERT
The playa out in one of the more remote
corners of Oregon sits in the impressive
shadow of the Steens Mountain.
Alvord Desert is only about 20 miles long
and receives most of its rainfall and mois-
ture over the winter, thanks to runoff from
The chalky-white
Alvord Desert is so
hard, you can drive
your car upon it. Vis-
itors to this ancient
playa ride all-terrain
vehicles, dirt bikes
and “land sailors,”
hand-made vehicles
best described as
small wheeled sail-
boats, before soak-
ing in the nearby Al-
vord Hot Springs.
the mountain, and can at times become
more of a lake (a quip this reporter heard
on a trip out to the Alvord Hot Springs two
years ago). When it gets wet, it gets muddy
so one can easily get stuck out on the flats.
But when things dry out, the ground
hardens and the wind can often howl over
the plain creating the desolate and alien-like
landscape that could be found in the worlds
of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
LAVA CAST FOREST
Closer to home, though best explored
during the summer after the snow has
melted, the lava rock-filled places of the
Newberry National Volcanic Monument re-
semble a lot of what could be found out on
other tertiary planets and moons. In fact,
during NASA’s Apollo program of the 1960s,
a handful of astronauts trained in these lava
fields to test their equipment and maneuver-
ability along the rocky terrain.
If you want a really secluded space-filled
hike, Lava Cast Forest is more tucked away
than its neighbors in the monument. Here
you can explore hollowed-out casts of trees
that were burned away when lava came
spewing out of the fissure off the side of
Newberry Volcano thousands of years ago.
And even more out of the way is the trail
to Hoffman Island, a kipuka, or an island
of trees surrounded by the jagged lava rock
beyond it.
Still not enough space?
If you want your own guided tour of the
cosmos, head to Sunriver to the Oregon Ob-
servatory and check out space through its
telescopes and a closer look at those billions
and billions of stars.
The observatory is currently open for pri-
vate daytime viewings Friday and Saturday
from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and for nighttime
viewings 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Satur-
days. Private tours and experiences can also
be arranged. All entry is time-specific and
tickets must be purchased in advance online
at snco.org
The Pine Mountain Observatory south-
east of Bend is also a great place to catch a
better peek at the cosmos but is only open
seasonally on weekends during the sum-
mer months. This observatory perched high
above the high desert on Pine Mountain is
operated by the University of Oregon De-
partment of Physics. For more information
visit pmo.uoregon.edu.
NOTE: Observatory times and availabil-
ity may change due to changing COVID re-
strictions and weather.
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Reporter: 541-383-0304, mwhittle@bendbulletin.com