5 Best Sights in Eastern Oregon, Oregon

This ramshackle building operated by the state park system was a trading post on The Dalles Military Road in 1866 and 1867, then later served as a general store, a Chinese labor exchange for the area's mines, a doctor's shop, and an opium den. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the museum is an extraordinary testament to the early Chinese community in Oregon. Tours are on the hour with groups limited to eight people; if you miss it, you can always catch a 5- or 30-minute video at the interpretive center across the street.

The 48-million-year-old fossil beds in this small section have yielded the oldest remains in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The drive to the beds traverses forests of ponderosa pines and sparsely populated valleys along the John Day River before traveling through a landscape filled with spires and outcroppings that attest to the region's volcanic past. A short trail that runs between the two parking lots contains fossilized evidence of an ancient subtropical forest. Another trail climbs ½ mile from the second parking lot to the base of the Palisades, a series of abrupt, irregular cliffs created by ancient volcanic mud flows.

The museum's collection spans the rodeo's history since 1910, with photographs—including glamorous glossies of prior Rodeo Queens and the Happy Canyon Princesses (all Native American)—as well as saddles, guns, and costumes. A taxidermied championship bronco named War Paint is the museum's cool, if slightly creepy, prize artifact.

The fossils at the Painted Hills, a unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, date back about 33 million years, and reveal a climate that has become noticeably drier than that of Sheep Rock's era. The eroded buff-colored hills reveal striking red and green striations created by minerals in the clay. Come at dusk or just after it rains, when the colors are most vivid. If traveling in spring, the desert wildflowers are most intense between late April and early May. Take the steep, ¾-mile Carroll Rim Trail for a commanding view of the hills or sneak a peek from the parking lot at the trailhead, about 2 miles beyond the picnic area. A few Forest Service roads lead north toward the Spring Basin Wilderness and the town of Antelope, but these can only be managed safely by high-clearance vehicles and when dry.

The center serves as the area's primary visitor center, with a museum dedicated to the fossil beds, fossils on display, in-depth informational panels, handouts, and an orientation movie. Two miles north of the visitor center on Highway 19 is the impressive Blue Basin, a badlands canyon with sinuous blue-green spires. Winding through this basin is the ½-mile Island in Time Trail, where trailside exhibits explain the area's 28-million-year-old fossils. The 3-mile Blue Basin Overlook Trail loops around the rim of the canyon, yielding some splendid views. Blue Basin is a hike with a high effort-to-reward ratio, and in summer rangers lead interpretive jaunts—check for an updated schedule at visitor center.