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Banded claystone at Painted Hills

Fig. 1Banded claystone at Painted Hills

Landform

Color-banded claystone hills — red, gold, and black stripes of ancient soils. A quieter badland in the John Day country.

Field note

Each stripe is a fossil soil. Reds mark warm wet forests; yellows mark drier times. After rain the colors deepen. Few people, a lot of silence.

A private leaf

Prints from Painted Hills


Instant paper, this copy only. Write on the white — a line the walk still owes you.

The prints

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Opening the leaf…

Onward

A day's country


The nearest plates, by the miles.

Desert chapter

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On the chart


Vintage map of the United States