A Return to Fern Canyon

 We visited the Redwood National Park area in July of 2012, on one of our earliest RV trips with the Alfa. I remembered one of the places we saw was called Fern Canyon and I knew I wanted to visit it again.

 

 

The drive in to the Canyon parking area is a rather rough eight mile road through a forest that had been logged of its old growth redwoods many years ago.

The new growth trees, around the big stumps,  are very tall, but not very wide. 

Fern Canyon is a stream bed that carved its way through the sandstone creating high walls that are covered with many kinds of ferns. I once read they filmed part of Jurassic Park (the movie) here, and it really did feel like it could be on an unpopulated island.

Craig taking a picture shows the height of the walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the picture below I am wearing a mask because there were other people around, and even though we were outdoors and we tried to keep our distance, we masked up for COVID protection.  Most other hikers do too, but there are always some who do not.

Although it is in a park, and a very popular place to visit, the stream bed trail is not "developed". There is no "trail", and you have to cross the stream many times to go up the canyon. There are some logs that a well balanced hiker can traverse, but once you have gotten your feet wet, it is easier to just splash across a shallow place.

By now, you know I love to take pictures of weird trees.

This one was on the top edge of the canyon wall.

We also noticed this funny tree on our walk back to the Jeep. I don't know what kind of tree it was, but its double trunk and graceful curves with ferns growing on its sides made it look like it had been caught doing a fancy dance.

The coastal areas of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California are among my favorite places to visit. Life seems closer to nature here. So many great short hikes to take.

We will be back!

Ferns, elk, more trees

From Craig: we started Sat July 14 by driving down to the Linda Bird Johnson Memorial Redwood Grove.  This may have been my favorite thing on our trip (Merikay's is Crater Lake).  The trees were less dense and had less undergrowth than other sites, allowing one to appreciate each tree for itself.  Plus the fog/mist was clearing overhead in the latter half of our walk, so that the sunlight through the trees produced many amazing scenes of the type that I think of as "shafts of gold from heaven".   #$%^*, I left the camera in the RV so you will just have to take our word for it!


Back to Merikay: Craig without a camera is like a pizza without cheese.  We drove back to the RV park to get it before going on with the day.  


Camera aboard, we retraced our steps and went to explore a park area called Fern Canyon which was at the end of an eight mile gravel park/beach road.  As we drove across three or four running streams without bridges, I once again wondered if our choice of an Accent was smart! But we made it without damage so I guess it was OK.

It was well worth the ride!  The fifty foot tall walls of the canyon along a winding stream are covered with many ferns and dripping with small waterfalls.  Some of the scenes from "The Lost World: Jurassic Park", BBC's "Walking with Dinosaurs", and "Dinosaurs Alive" were filmed here.  It really did feel like a prehistoric world, except for all the other tourists and the strategically placed wood planks in the steam bed! This is as much a "must see" as the big trees.

Speaking of which, here is another one we stopped to see.

Herds of elk make their home in the parks, meadows and front yards along Highway 101 in Del Norte county, California. Wherever they decide to graze cars full of tourists pull off the road to gawk and take pictures.  


We were among them.


We ended our third week of this trip with another nice evening visiting with our Alfa Gold neighbors.  


I could really get to like this.