The Painted Hills are best photographed in the late afternoon, when the setting sun will light up the face of the hills. Wildflowers should be blooming in early May to add more color to the hills. We can hope for some rain, because the Painted Hills will have more vibrant, saturated colors after a rain. Not too much rain since there is a new moon over that weekend and too many clouds will obstruct the stars for a night shot.

Access to the base of the hills is restricted now so I take my 24-105mm, 70-200mm and a 1.4x tele-converter. A longer telephoto is useful to isolate sections of the hills, I have even seen people using a 400mm lens.

The Painted Hills are about 3.5 – 4.0 hours from Eugene north on Bridge Creek Road (AKA Burnt Ranch Road) off Highway 26 about 4 miles west of Mitchell, Oregon.

Mitchell is a small town, so services are limited, there is one hotel, one restaurant, and one grocery store/deli. There are camping options too, however if you want to camp along the John Day River I would suggest a high clearance vehicle to get there. If you are planning on going and want a room in the hotel, I would make reservations before too long. Another thing to keep in mind, you might want to have a big lunch and take dinner fix-ins, because the restaurant may be closed by the time you are done shooting. Prineville is the closest “large town” about 1 hour away. I would also fuel up in Prineville on the way to the Painted Hills.

Other opportunities or places to see;
• Milky Way – you should be able to get some images with it over the top of the Painted Hills at about 01:30 Sunday morning. Bring the widest, fastest lens you have.
• Owen Ranch is about a 20-minute hike to an abandoned ranch house.
• Big Summit Prairie – Lots of wildflowers, if the snow has melted enough to get through the Ochocos.
• Thomas Condon Paleontology Museum – located about 45 miles east of Mitchell at the Sheep Rock Unit (John Day Fossil Beds NM)

More information
• Mitchell, Oregon – lots of local info http://mitchelloregon.us/painted-hills/painted-hills/
• National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/joda/planyourvisit/index.htm
• http://traveloregon.com/see-do/attractions/outdoors-nature/painted-hills/

The Mitchell, Oregon website (link above) above has links to the Hotel.
I will put together more of a plan as we get closer and let you know when I will be leaving and where we can meet. In the meantime take a look at Flickr – search images for “Painted Hills” and see what you would like to capture.

Last Updated on January 17, 2022