Most trails in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument are for visitors in a hurry.

Two trails, though, require more time — and offer added rewards. The Blue Basin Overlook, several miles north of the Sheep Rock Unit visitor center, is a 3.25-mile loop trail. The Carroll Rim Trail, the longest at the Painted Hills Unit, is a 1.6-mile round trip.

Having hiked the popular Blue Basin Island of Time Trail, a 1.3-mile round trip, several years earlier, I wanted to return for the more challenging overlook trail. I’d seen the volcanic eruption’s fossil-bearing ash beds from below. Now I wanted to see them from above.

In the interest of not winning a Burnt Biscuit Award — the fossil beds can be oven-hot in midsummer — I pick a day when the high is predicted to be near 70 degrees and make the 3½-hour drive to reach the trailhead.

When I arrive, I’m eager to stretch my legs. I dab on sunscreen, grab a daypack, water, snacks and head out, going clockwise on the overlook loop. Flowers including Indian paintbrush bloom in weird rock formations. A bumblebee gathers pollen from Canada thistle.

Gnarled juniper trees seem to grow out of rock. Sage scent fills the draw as I climb the east side of Blue Basin, soon reaching the only shaded bench on the trail. I sit a spell. In the first 1.23 miles I have climbed 570 feet in elevation.

The high point of the loop is at 1.58 miles with 740 feet elevation gain. There, a panoramic view unfolds of colorful fossil beds formed 25 million to 35 million years ago and massive lava flows formed 16 million years ago.

The trail south and west of Blue Basin offers excellent views of rock formations. Eventually the loop dumps into the Island of Time Trail. I take it into the middle of the Blue Basin amphitheater. Here, more hikers appear, including some human “fossils” as old as me.

We’re all mystified. This once tropical landscape — the habitat of rhinos, saber-toothed cats and small horses — is now desert.

After returning to the trailhead, I drive to Mitchell and the Painted Hills Unit. The air has cooled to the mid-50s. Clouds thicken. A west wind packs a 20 mph punch, with an undercut of dust.

I’ve visited Painted Hills several times before — it’s one of Oregon’s seven wonders — but never hung around long enough to hike its longest, although still modest, trail.

I park across the road from the trailhead, grab water and a daypack, jam a hat on and set out. Although the Carroll Rim Trail rises in elevation quickly, it is smoother than the Blue Basin Overlook Trail. I climb more than 400 feet of elevation to reach panoramic views of the eroded, multicolored formations familiar from calendar shots.

Several fellow hikers share the trail. Still, it is nowhere near as crowded as the hubbub down below, where even on a Monday this one-of-a-kind attraction is popular with tourists.

As always, leave only footprints and take only pictures. Whether in town or on the trail, try to leave your surroundings better than you found them.