Did you know there is an “official” list of Seven Oregon Wonders? Wonders as in natural ones – not the man made kind but places of extreme beauty – because that’s what Oregon is good at – extreme natural beauty.
My wife would tell you that I’m a “list” guy. I have lists of books to read, movies to watch, and especially lists of places to go and visit.
So when I see an article touting a list of the Seven Wonders of Oregon of course I had to check out just how many I had seen.
It turns out I had done pretty well – I’d seen six out of seven. Of course Crater Lake National Park, our only national park, had to be one of the seven wonders and I’d been there just a couple of years ago. Click here for my photos of Crater Lake.
They grouped all the attractions of the Columbia Gorge into a single wonder instead of singling out Multnomah Falls as its own natural wonder. I’m up and down that Columbia Gorge corridor a lot and I can attest to its worthiness as a wonder of Oregon. Nearby Mt. Hood was also one of the wonders and one that I have spent a lot of time exploring.
The next natural wonder and one that I’ve certainly seen is another ensemble effort – The Oregon Coast. Those 363 miles of coastline are certainly deserving of being on the list. Click here for my post about the 363 miles of Oregon Coast
The next two wonders are a little more out of the way and less well known but I had seen both on several occasions. One is Smith Rocks just a short jog off the road between Portland and Bend. Good hiking, cool rock formations, and a mecca for rock climbers.
The Wallowas grab the next spot. This Oregon Wonder includes the mountains, alpine lakes, and streams in this wilderness area in the northeastern corner of the state. I’ve had several nice visits for camping and hiking to this Oregon wonder.
If you’ve been counting that comes to six Wonders of Oregon and by now the pictures should have given you a hint about the last wonder and the only one I had never seen – The Painted Hills of Oregon. That is until last month when I ventured in for a visit.
The Painted Hills are part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and are located near Mitchell, Oregon on Highway 26. It’s actually a pretty compact area and it includes five trails and a couple of viewpoints so that you can both look at and get out into the hills.
The picture above shows the consistency of the Painted Hills up close. You are not allowed to walk on the mounds as they are relatively delicate and you can actually see the effects of deer tracks on the hills. A few spots on the Painted Cove trail come right next to the mounds and allow for careful inspection. Humans climbing around these hills would be quite destructive.
This roughly five square mile area was once an ancient river floodplain which received layer after layer of soil deposits over the millennia. Each layer of red, yellow, gold, black and brown in the soil reflects the various changes occurring during the geological era that left the soil behind.
They say the Painted Hills are best seen in the late afternoon or after moisture but I have to add one more key timing element to that list and that is to see the hills when the wildflowers in the area are in bloom (early June in our case) because they add a tremendous amount of color to the borders of the Painted Hills. This link takes you to the government website about the Painted Hills.
We both felt that the Painted Hills deserved its spot on the Oregon Wonders List. And now that we’ve seen all seven of the Wonders of Oregon I can think of some other spots to add if they wanted to make it a Top 10 Wonders – Silver Falls , The Oregon Dunes, and the Owyhee River – to name a few.