John Day: Clarno Unit

The John Day Fossil Beds National Monument has three separate units, all within about 50 miles of each other. The closest to the town of Fossil is the Clarno Unit, and after eating a heart-healthy dinner of cheeseburgers and tater tots at the local cafe, we drove several miles down the road to catch a glimpse before sunset.

I was in search of these:


Little did I know, this would be the extent of our fossil finds, a boring old leaf.

I'm actually fairly sure a park ranger went around and decoupaged a bunch of leaves onto the rocks, then put signs up tricking people into thinking they are fossils.


But then I stumbled upon this purple heart fossil. Obviously from a small, very loving, dinosaur. And my interest in fossils was once again restored.


But obviously not for very long because I noticed, when flipping through my photos, I had none of the giant rock face where the fossils reside. All my photos are instead of this lovely green hillside. And the setting sun. And me, in my ferocious bear hat {because naturally I needed a toboggan the last weekend in May}.


And one photo where we were once again reminded to put the gorilla pod in the car and keep it there. Nature rarely provides nice, level spots to sit one's camera.



The whole time we were out here, Mark kept saying "Isn't this the type of place where you can imagine dinosaurs living?" Um, sure. Maybe if it were on fire and there were asteroids hitting the Earth. Or if we were surrounded by tar pits and smoking bogs. This makes me think that maybe I need to see a few more pictures of dinosaurs that don't involve their demise {or perhaps watch "Land Before Time" again. At least the part before Little Foot's mother dies}...since I obviously can't imagine them frolicking around in beautiful green hillsides.

Also, Mark would like to clarify that he was not actually out here on a dinosaur hunt. Being a geologist, he is more highly educated than me in these matters, and knew that only leaves and mammal fossils exist in these particular rock formations.