John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
![A conical mountain composed of many buff and pink rock layers rises above a small river bordered on one side by a green field. Black rock layers cap the mountain.](/Images/godic/202501/21/Sheep_Rock_near_sunset2040.jpg")
![Oregon is a northwestern U.S. state. The park is in the north-central part of the state.](/Images/godic/202501/21/Oregon_map_with_national_inset.plus_JODAdots2040.png")
![Palisades at the Clarno Unit of the monument](/Images/godic/202501/21/Clarno_palisades_22040.jpg")
![Thomas Condon](/Images/godic/202501/21/Thomas_condon_of_oregon2040.jpg")
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is a U.S. National Monument in Wheeler and Grant counties in east-central Oregon. Located within the John Day River basin and managed by the National Park Service, the park is known for its well-preserved layers of fossil plants and mammals that lived in the region between the late Eocene, about 45 million years ago, and the late Miocene, about 5 million years ago. The monument consists of three geographically separate units: Sheep Rock, Painted Hills, and Clarno.