Sara

DH and I will be attending a conference in Portland, OR in late June, and plan to take some time to visit other sights in Oregon afterwards. We're very interested in visiting the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, particularly the Painted Hills and the Sheep Rock Unit to hike the Blue Basin trail. We love photography, natural beauty, and moderate hiking. We'd like to spend two nights in the area before moving on to visit Crater Lake NP. I'm having a hard time finding information about good places to stay near the ares we're interested in visiting (it is kind of out in the middle of nowhere). Any tips on good places to stay and/or eat (restaurants also seem to be hard to find), and any other advice would be much appreciated.

happytrailstoyou

The Best Western is the best place to stay in John Day. The nearby Outpost Pizza Pub & Grill is an established restaurant that serves the usual fare in a big dining room.

Kam Wah Ghung & Co. Museum is an interesting attraction in John Day.

HTtY

sunbum1944

We stayed at the Service Creek Stage Stop - its an Inn close to the town of Fossil. It is an old stagecoach stop. I was with a group and we had the whole place - its a bit rustic, not sure its for everyone but it was OK.
There is a restaurant next door which is not an example of fine dining but it was OK and they made lunches to go for us. If you stay there, don't choose the downstairs bedroom as its a bit noisy being next to the room with the TV.
The Inn has a kitchen so we did our own breakfasts and dinners there.

I loved the John Day area though. So interesting, We did the Blue Baisin walk with the ranger, the painted hills, Clarno and Sheeprock units. Some people went looking for fossils behind the Fossil high school and came home with quite a few.

Its an amazing area

Agree that there are not a lot of choices.

tomfuller

There are 2 gas stations in the town of John Day. They both close at 5PM. If you arrive in town with less than a quarter tank, you have to hang around until 9AM to fill your tank. The next gas going east west or south is about 75 miles.
"Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints".

happytrailstoyou

It is always wise to have plenty of gas, but a man who answered the phone at the Shell station in John Day told me that the station is open until 8:00 p.m.

HTtY

tomfuller

Good to hear things have improved since I spent a night in my car in 2006. There were 3 cars in the parking lot of the hospital that night.
Gas is usually cheaper in Redmond or Burns than in John Day.
Oregon's newest State Park is the Cottonwood Canyon along the John Day River.

Fodorite018

As mentioned, there isn't much around there. I can't help with where to stay since we backpack in that area.

tomfuller--We stopped at Cottonwood last summer. Looks like it will be nice when the trees get bigger. For now the camping area is pretty dismal, but in time it will be nice. The area is fantastic though!

Sara

Thanks for all the replies. Since we'll be coming from Portland, and going to Crater Lake next after our time at JDNM, I think we'd prefer not to stay in John Day, as it is almost an hour east of the NM, as far as I can tell, adding a lot of extra driving. The Service Creek Stage Stop in Fossil looks like a possibility, but Fossil is almost an hour and a half from the NM, according to Google maps (maybe a bit closer to the painted hills section). It's on the way from Portland (depending on our route), but a long way to backtrack for the night, and not really on the way to Crater Lake.

Does anyone have an opinion as to whether it would be a good idea to stay in Prineville? It seems like the nearest town west of the John Day NM, between there and Crater Lake (our next stop). It's also about an hour and a half from the JDNM (all this according to Google Maps), but would put us much closer to Crater Lake. I'd hoped to find someplace closer to the National Monument itself, but it seems there really is nothing nearby. Thanks for all the help!

tomfuller

I did stay one night in Prineville when all the rooms in Redmond were filled during the Deschutes County Fair.
If there are rooms available at the Sleep Inn in Redmond that's where we stay. Sleep Inn is much nicer than anything in Prineville. The nicest thing in Prineville IMO, is a Wildland Firefighter Memorial. The Prineville Hotshots were killed in the fire blowup on Storm King Mountain in Colorado west of Glenwood Springs.

sunbum1944

You could check out the Condon Hotel in beautiful downtown Condon

http://www.hotelcondon.com

When we did our JD trip, we drove into Condon on a Sunday afternoon- it was pretty dead and the hotel was not open- but looks like it is now

There are not a lot of choices for sure

khor

Ditto the advice to stay at the Hotel Condon. We stayed there 2 nights when we did our trip out to John Day. The hotel is nice for the area, and the manger (a few years ago) was very friendly. There is no way to get around all of the driving out there, but the sights are worth it. I would also recommend bringing some of your own food/snacks in the car. Things close early and we found the dining options to be very limited when we returned late from sightseeing! There are limited options for groceries as well.

frogsinthecreek

Sara, I'm planning this same trip and was wondering where you ended up staying the night. There really are so few accommodations in the area. Thanks!

janisj

Sara likely won't see your post -- It looks like she has't posted since last year.

Maybe it will help to start a new thread w/ your question . . .

janisj

. . . having said that, your best options probably are in the town of John Day about an hour away. (I've never stayed there by my folks used to visit that corner of Oregon and the only town I know they stayed was John Day.

sunbum1944

Did you check out the Service Creek Stage Stop?

I posted about it above!

It's an amazing part of the country but not many places to stay.

sunbum1944

http://www.servicecreek.com

Link to Service Creek.

NorthwestMale

Wow, frogs'... good effort at returning to Fodors after Ten YEARS!!


I just went to John Day, and the Sheep Rock unit last Tuesday, and I would suggest that Prineville is near enough to use as an overnight stop.

(there was construction at the cutoff for the Painted Hills unit, and while it may have been OK to GO there, I was too intimidated by all of the machinery and the ongoing road work, to even bother)

John Day is certainly isolated and remote, but Prineville should have enough amenities to suit most people, and it is probably something near to an hour away from the Sheep Rock unit of the fossil beds. The drive is pleasant enough west of John Day, but a bit more dull going east toward Baker City.