John Day Fossil Beds

First, some history about the name.  The fossil beds are named after the John Day River.  There is also a town, John Day, which is about 50 miles away from the fossil beds, but also named after the river.  John Day himself was an early settler who got robbed at gunpoint by bandits, who stole even his clothes!  This happened hundreds of miles downstream, where the river meets the Columbia River.  Afterwards, people pointed out the river as the place John Day was robbed, and so the river was called the John Day River.

Thousands of fossils have been found in this area.  It also has some colourful rock formations.

This fossil was high up on a rock wall.  We never discovered what it once was.