Painted Hills is located within the John Day River basin, a U.S. national monument in Wheeler and Grant counties in east-central Oregon. Distinguished by varied stripes of red, tan, orange, and black, this area preserves a sequence of past climate change.

The varied colors of the Painted Hills are beautiful at all times of the day, but are best lit for photography in the late afternoon. Changing light and moisture levels drastically affect the tones and hues visible in the hills. The seasons can also change the look of the Painted Hills radically. Spring often brings yellow wildflowers that grow in open areas and sometime even in the ripples of the hills. Winter can blanket the hills in a white coat, concealing the vibrant hues until the snow melts, revealing interspersed stripes of gold and red.

After a long dry summer there was a lot of dust that would have muted the colors. So seeing rain in the forecast, we waited until the end of our trip to visit the Painted Hills and I think it made the colors much more vibrant.
.

Painted Hills is located within the John Day River basin, a U.S. national monument in Wheeler and Grant counties in east-central Oregon. Distinguished by varied stripes of red, tan, orange, and black, this area preserves a sequence of past climate change.

The varied colors of the Painted Hills are beautiful at all times of the day, but are best lit for photography in the late afternoon. Changing light and moisture levels drastically affect the tones and hues visible in the hills. The seasons can also change the look of the Painted Hills radically. Spring often brings yellow wildflowers that grow in open areas and sometime even in the ripples of the hills. Winter can blanket the hills in a white coat, concealing the vibrant hues until the snow melts, revealing interspersed stripes of gold and red.

After a long dry summer there was a lot of dust that would have muted the colors. So seeing rain in the forecast, we waited until the end of our trip to visit the Painted Hills and I think it made the colors much more vibrant.
.

Painted Hills is located within the John Day River basin, a U.S. national monument in Wheeler and Grant counties in east-central Oregon. Distinguished by varied stripes of red, tan, orange, and black, this area preserves a sequence of past climate change.

The varied colors of the Painted Hills are beautiful at all times of the day, but are best lit for photography in the late afternoon. Changing light and moisture levels drastically affect the tones and hues visible in the hills. The seasons can also change the look of the Painted Hills radically. Spring often brings yellow wildflowers that grow in open areas and sometime even in the ripples of the hills. Winter can blanket the hills in a white coat, concealing the vibrant hues until the snow melts, revealing interspersed stripes of gold and red.

After a long dry summer there was a lot of dust that would have muted the colors. So seeing rain in the forecast, we waited until the end of our trip to visit the Painted Hills and I think it made the colors much more vibrant.
.

Thanks for your comment and this is what google says about the fossils:
What kind of fossils are in John Day Fossil Beds?
Image result for what kind of fossils do they have at the John Day fossil beds
Fossils found in the John Day Strata include a wide variety of plants and more than 100 species of mammals, including dogs, cats, oreodonts, saber-toothed tigers, horses, camels, and rodents. The Blue Basin and the Sheep Rock unit contain many of these same fossils, as well as turtles, opossums, and large pigs.
And: Years of plant and animal evolution and a collection of 40,000 fossils that represent one of the two most complete fossil records in the world.

Dave