Once you get out of the car, you feel like you’re setting foot on another planet. The landscape is comparable to something seen and experienced in a Star Wars film (or an H.G. Wells novel). An expansive desert scene unfolds through the curves of the rock and the streaks of yellow and red soils.
Words and Photography by Marissa Marino
The Painted Hills in Oregon started to evolve 40 million years ago from volcanic and mudflow activity. This, mixed with the terrain’s abrupt climate changes, played a key role in the formation of the hills. The fluctuating temperature changes materialised the band of colours stretching across the landscape; red sediments were formed in warm tropical environments, while cooler, drier climates gave some strata its yellow colour. Each of these coloured bands tells a story about prior geological eras.
I am intrigued by the intentions of people visiting places that look otherworldly. The park itself is not Bierstadt-esque by any means. The terrain lacks the aesthetic qualities that typically make a park postcard-worthy: waterfalls, treelines, purple mountain ranges; the kind of place that makes you want to write a patriotic anthem. I think the allure of places like the Painted Hills comes from a ubiquitous need to understand who we are and how we’ve evolved over time. The barren desert allows you to re-imagine the land inhabited by dense forests and three-toed horses. This kind of connection dissolves the boundaries between the geological past and present. Seen from this perspective, you start to realise the temporality of yourself and the surrounding terrain.
As climate change persists in real time, it’s important to deepen our relationships with places like the Painted Hills. The transparency and the rawness of desert rock gives us an intimate look into the geological continuum we’re currently moving through. Geologist Marcia Bjornerud says it best, “Geology has this PR problem. People think it’s about dusty mineral collection or just oils and glass, but it actually has both the pragmatic and a deep philosophical side. It’s about big existential questions as much as finding resources.” Looking into the past will only help us make ecologically informed decisions about the future, and help us understand how our anthropological footprint will eventually reverberate throughout the landscape.
“The barren desert allows you to re-imagine the land inhabited by dense forests and three-toed horses.”
“You start to realise the temporality of yourself and the surrounding terrain.”
“As climate change persists in real time, it’s important to deepen our relationships with places like the Painted Hills.”
This story was originally published in The Earth Issue.
Marissa Marino
Marissa Marino is a photographer working between Portland and Los Angeles, whose work has featured in Cereal, The Earth Issue and Anyonegirl. She studied Environmental Science and Media Art to explore the sociocultural changes required to create a better future. Marissa’s environmentally-conscious profile has brought her to work with brands and designers that equally prioritize the intangible and tangible qualities of their craft.
