Fern Canyon is located near the coast of Redwood forest in Northern California. It is a beautiful 0.25 miles long canyon with lush green ferns growing on both sides of canyon walls that are 15 feet high. After having lot of hikes in the Redwood forest, it is a nice change of scenery and enjoying the water stream running within the canyon.
There are 2 ways to get to the canyon. The easiest way is to drive along an unpaved gravel road along the coast to get to the entrance of Fern Canyon. The other way is to hike the James Irvine trail from Redwood Elk Prairie Park visitor center and it leads to Fern Canyon. The second way takes longer since the trail is about 5 miles long. We chose to take the hike to Fern Canyon and started early in the morning. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to Fern Canyon and we were very exhausted. But once we saw the green lush ferns, we were energized again!
There are wooden boards paced on top of the running water stream to allow tourist to walk across the stream. So we were able to go all the way into the end of the canyon. There were few part of the canyon that were partially blocked by wooden logs and we had to climb over them.
When we were there, one woman fell down from the wooden log and broke her leg and shoulder. That was a scary moment. Luckily a range was scouting the area and was able to call for help with his satellite phone. 20 minutes later, many emergency personals showed up with first aid kit and oxygen bags.
Fern Canyon was definitely an interesting place to visit. When visiting Fern Canyon during the morning, we could still see thick mist in the canyon that creates a mysterious scene.
Fern Canyon was also the place where Jurassic Park The Lost World shot one of its scenes. It is the scene where one of the mercenary got chased down by chomps and got killed eventually.
When visiting Redwood National Park, do make sure you visit Fern Canyon and you will not regret!
EmoticonEmoticon