Featuring the most walks and hikes, this unit is also closest to the Paleontology Center. Above loom majestic, layered mountains tilted and eroding into spectacular formations that date back 28 million years. Fossils are continually being exposed here.
From the Blue Basin Area, two hikes lead out to the fossil formations. The Island in Time Trail is a well-maintained, mile-long (round-trip) path that climbs up a narrow waterway to a badlands-basin of highly eroded, uncannily green sediments. The longer Blue Basin Overlook Trail is a 3-mile loop with amazing vistas of the John Day Valley.
