Carroll Rim at Painted Rock Unit

This view is looking north from the visitor information kiosk/picnic area at the Painted Hills Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The hill (about 500 feet high) is called Carroll Rim and was the source of many fossils early in the exploration of the John Day region. The Picture Gorge Ignimbrite (a massive volcanic tuff deposit) caps the hill. This type of hill fits the definition of a cuesta, a hill capped by an erosionally resistant layer of gently dipping strata. This massive volcanic deposit overlies sedimentary beds of the Turtle Cove Member of the John Day Formation (Fremd and others, 1994).