Here's another perspective of the dramatic scenic overview depicted in the previous image. The view here is essentially due westward toward the Great Central Valley. This is glorious scrub oak country in the lower western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Sediments in foreground belong to the Lower Miocene Valley Springs Formation, which overlies the fossil-bearing Middle Eocene Ione Formation in the Ione Basin. Image snapped on October 19, 1999.

Please note: All fossil localities in the Ione Formation of Amador County, California, presently occur on private property; explicit permission from the land owners must be secured before collecting fossils there.