Redwood Creek Trail

Well we had showers last night and it's foggy this morning. We headed out to hike Fern Canyon. We turned west onto Davidson Road and passed the Elk Meadow (nope no Elk...) and the road soon turned to dirt with ferns growing everywhere. We stopped at the Day Use fee gate and paid our fee. There was a note that the seasonal bridges in Fern Canyon were not available until summer. The sign said the road was open. That's ok we'll check it out so we continued. The pot holes were the size of craters and trying to go around them on this narrow road was a real test. Passing Gold Beach we made a note to come back for lunch. Up the road about 2 miles appears a sign "stream crossing ahead"... well sure enough the stream crossed the road but no bridge. Yep - Ken was sure we could make it through so after some discussion - we went (eh). A little way further down the road we came to another stream..Nope! Not going!. So we turned around. We were disappointed but we didn't want to take any changes - guess we need a 4 wheel drive vehicle.... Fern Canyon was used by Steven Spielberg for Jurassic II. It's a narrow canyon, whose 50 foot walls are carpeted with ferns and mosses.

Back at Gold Beach we took our picnic bag and found a table right on the edge of the beach. The fog was still hanging along the cliffs, waves crashing against the black sand and breaks of sun and blue sky. We walked the beach and then sat at our table loving the sound of the pounding surf. There's no one here but us and it's great. After about an hour we left the beach.

We wound our way back to Rte 101. We drove through the hamlet of Orick and then drove down Bald Hills Road to the Redwood Creek Trail. We passed a stand of Alder trees and could see a herd of elk grazing in the trees. Redwood Creek is a beautiful flat trail with maples, redwoods, meadow, ferns and cascading creek. This is an 8 mile trail so we walked about a mile over little wooden bridges and past natural rock waterfalls. Many of the trees are covered with moss and this gives the forest an other worldly feeling. Along the trail we found this cute yellow Banana Slug. These are decomposers and turn dead plant materials into soil humus. As we got back to the car the clouds were getting darker and heavier.

By the time we got back to camp it was raining. Ken worked on some maintenance items and I got a new recipie ready for dinner. The campground is full again tonight. We talked with the camp hosts for a while. They are a young couple (30's), which is unusual. They are here for 6 months. I couldn't do 6 months with no services, phone, etc. It's pretty remote! We watched TV and went to bed.

Pictures: Gold Beach (2), Redwood Creek Trail (4), Banana Slug