Knowing we only had one full day at Redwood National Park made it easy for all of us to get up and moving pretty early. It's interesting that unlike any other park we are visiting this trip, the Redwood National Park is actually a combination of four Redwood Parks that are administratively combined between the National Park Service and the California State Parks. These four contiguous parks make up 133,000 acres of northwest California. Our campground in Klamath, CA put us closest to the Prairie Creek park so that's where we decided to focus our day.
We arrived at the Prairie Creek Visitor Center just as they opened at 9am. The girls got their Jr. Ranger books and we talked with the Ranger to get recommendations and helpful information to make the most of our day. The Ranger also gave the girls a scavenger hunt to follow on the Prairie Creek Visitor Center Trail. We were planning on doing this trail anyway because one of our must-do’s was to see Big Tree, which was also located here. The girls sat on the covered porch working on their books for a bit before we started our 2.4 mile hike.
A gorgeous creek was at the start of the trail. We rounded the corner and walked across a beautiful wooden bridge over the creek.
As we continued and focused on the scavenger hunt clues we couldn’t help but be continually in awe of the remarkably tall trees with trunks of mindboggling circumference surrounding us. Our eyes darted around taking in all the little details. We were fascinated by the thin, curly moss that draped around some of the tree branches and hung down like hair hanging past the nape of a woman’s neck. We noticed the moss growing in different thicknesses and lengths on various trees and rocks along the path. The girls kept getting drawn to the trees and several times went over to see them closer, explore, hug, and/or climb.
All of a sudden we heard a rustling in the greenery right in front of us that made us stop dead in our tracks. We breathed a sigh of relief when we realized it was a deer and stayed there watching as he ate some leaves before running off.
A little further down we came to two large trees that had fallen across the path a short distance from one another with archways cut out.
We noticed a very interesting tree root that grew up from the ground and curved around similar to a swan’s neck. The way the pieces of the root split off at the bottom made it look like a large lizard at a quick glance.
The girls finished the scavenger hunt when they found their final item and saw the secret message they needed to bring back to the ranger.
At one point Lily told me she saw a snail that lost it’s shell. I asked her to show me what she was talking about. She walked me back to a large green leaf with something bright yellow on it. We bent down to take a closer look and I immediately realized it was the banana slug the Ranger had told us about and we saw on the exhibit sign describing things to see in this area.
The trail came to the highway through the park and we used the crosswalk and continued on. Shortly past this point we saw it….Big Tree. This put all the trees we thought had impressive circumference to shame. Big Tree stands 286 feet high and has a whopping circumference of 74.5 feet. The 4 of us stood in front of it holding hands with our arms spread out and the tree still extended past us on each side. We stayed by Big Tree for some time admiring it and taking in it’s size.
A few feet in front of it there were viewing tubes set up that we took turns trying out. A dose of humor was also right here. There was a pole with arrows pointing in different directions. On each arrow was written a message, such as another big tree this way, that’s a big tree and more big trees this way.
After taking one last, good, hard look at Big Tree without the viewing tubes we continued on the trail. Ella’s eyes were drawn to two more banana slugs sitting on the face of a sheared off moss covered tree trunk. We were laughing at the placement of these because we thought it looked like the slugs were the eyes on a funny face, with the moss being the hair. There was even a notch cut out in the trunk that looked like a mouth agape and a line towards the top that looked like a wrinkle in a forehead.
We finished up the trail and went back to the Visitors Center. The girls shared their scavenger hunt hidden phrase discovery and their completed Jr Ranger books with the ranger and were sworn in. We were all ready for lunch by this point. Adam went to the truck to get our cooler bag and we sat on a bench in the shade to quickly eat.
Next, we left the visitor center area and started our drive to Fern Canyon. We were excited because we heard Fern Canyon is a beautiful natural wonder that was even chosen by Steven Spielberg as a filming location for The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The canyon is in a remote area of the park near Gold Bluffs Beach and not easily accessible. Getting there would require some off-roading. We were told by the host at our campground that it would be a unique drive down an unpaved road but we did not realize just how unique it would be. The road was extremely dusty with very uneven ground. As we drove, the truck was bouncing around as the road was riddled with potholes.
At one point we saw a sign on the side saying Stream Crossing Ahead and just past that the water was flowing in the road and traffic in both directions were driving right on through. We followed suit when it was our turn and at this point were very grateful to be making this crazy 8 mile ride in our truck even though there were all kinds of vehicles doing this.
At one point Adam started to get very nervous because even though traffic was driving in both directions on this narrow “road” the driving space was cut in half with a line of cars parked to the one side. Somehow we made it all the way through and finally ended up at the trailhead parking lot in one piece with the truck still in tact. The eight mile ride on this road took us about 45 minutes.
It was about a one block walk to the Fern Canyon entrance. Right at the beginning of this walk was a street sign we had never seen before. It was warning hikers not to approach mama elks as they are very protective of their babies. While the message is a serious one, we could not help but laugh at the picture.
As we approached the entrance it was evident this was going to be a hike like no other. To either side of us stood the lush green fern filled walls with not one barren spot as far as the eye could see. The ground we were hiking was covered in crystal clear water exposing the beautiful rock bottom below. There were manmade foot bridges, fallen tree trunks and rocks to help us keep our feet dry while navigating the terrain. We made our way through the canyon using the footbridges as much as possible. We did a lot of balance beam type walking on logs and were often jumping from rock to rock. There were several spots where the only way to continue on was to climb over the large horizontal tree trunk barriers. We continually went close up to the walls to admire and study the variety of ferns. We really liked the five finger ferns, called this because the leaves formed in a way that mimicked fingers hanging down.
At several points we watched as water trickled down the wall like mini waterfalls. In other areas the water seeped through slowly and we stopped to observe and listen to the melodic dripping noise it created. We made our way through the canyon until we got to a section that was impassable due to a large number of down trees. Earlier the Ranger told us the steps had collapsed and advised us not to go past this part. So even though the girls were dying to continue and there were several people climbing over and under the tree trunks we did not go further.
We all felt very grateful to have the opportunity to explore such a magical spot on this Earth. As we made our way back we stopped several times to just take it all in. This was definitely the coolest hike we had ever done. We made our way out of the canyon and got back in the truck to take the crazy 8 mile drive out of this area.
When we got to the end of the “road” it was around 4:30 so we decided to go right to the meadow the Ranger told us about to view the elk coming out to eat. We were very excited this plan worked and we were able to watch a good number of them grazing together.
After spending about 30 minutes here we went back to the Visitors Center area. There was a huge meadow right by it and sometimes the Elk come here too. For some reason no elk came to this area today. When we left this area earlier I was disappointed we weren’t able to do the Revelation Trail. Since there were no Elk to watch and we were right here we decided to use the opportunity to check it out.
I was intrigued by this .3 mile loop trail because the sign said it was a trail for the senses. As we were walking over to the trailhead the girls each found branches that they wanted to use for walking sticks. This trail started with a boardwalk path around the large trees. Throughout the trail signs were posted to draw our attention to a special feature to experience. Each sign had a symbol to let us know which sense to use. As we walked the trail we were really trying to stay present in our surroundings and pay close attention to everything around us. Here is a slide show of our favorite findings:
After a very enjoyable short hike that was made better by using all of our senses we left this area for the last time. We took a short drive to our next destination, Tour Thru The Tree. This is just what it sounds like. A local family carved an opening in one of their very large redwood trees so you can take a tour for a nominal fee. Some people drive thru the tour, (yes, you read that correctly) and take their car right through the opening. Since we had the truck we didn’t want to take any chances. We decided to take our tour on foot. While we were there it was fun to watch the other cars, though.
After this quick stop it was now dinner time. We found a restaurant that wasn’t too far away. It was a beautiful evening and we were happy the restaurant had an outdoor patio with seating available. As we were leaving our plan was to go back to our campsite and do another campfire. While we were walking out we crossed paths with the hostess. Without prompting she stopped us to see if we realized there was an incredible place to see the sunset about a 10 minute drive away and she strongly recommended we go. We had to make a decision very quickly as the sun was going to set in about 20 minutes. All of us were in agreement to skip the campfire and replace it with the sunset. When we got to the beach we pulled into the pullout on the side of the road. We were on the opposite side of the highway so we decided to climb into the bed of the truck to watch the sky’s splendor. The beach in front of us had incredible large boulders that looked like small mountains known as seastacks in the middle of the ocean. As we stood in the truck the sun started to fall in the sky. The blue sky changed to a glowing orange above the ocean as the sun radiated like a ball of fire. We kept our eyes peeled as the gorgeous colors streaked through the sky and met the darkness of the water below it in the horizon. Immense gratitude washed over me as I stood there. I could not believe this woman randomly approached us to let us know about this phenomenal spot and gave us the gift of this experience.
As we turned the truck around to head back we were now on the side of the beach. I noticed the sand looked charcoal gray in color and told Adam we had to stop. Adam parked in the pullout and we all got out. The girls were picking up handfuls of this dark colored sand and letting it fall through their fingers. We kept this stop short since we were all exhausted after this very full day and it was getting dark quickly.
As we were on our way to watch the sunset Lily noticed the very large statues outside of a tourist attraction called The Trees of Mystery. She asked Adam to stop there on the way home and he did. Ella and I stayed in the car while Adam took Lily to quickly explore. This was our last stop and was finally time for the short drive back to the RV so we could end our night. We absolutely LOVED the Klamath, CA area and Redwood National Park!!!
