Day 9

We had a permit for visiting Fern Canyon in Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park. It took about an hour and a half to get there. Ardith hadn't realized how far away it was. There was also a 7.5-mile windy, dirt road with two shallow stream crossings to get there. Again, Jim drove the truck.

The canyon is 50-80 foot deep. You access it by walking a level trail that follows Home Creek as it wanders through the forest. there are some short boards that go across the stream but there are other parts that you need to expect to get your feet wet. Luckily, Denis and I have pretty good hiking shoes so while we got damp, we never had really wet feet. We also brought a change of shoes and were happy we had. The trail says that it is an easy loop but about the time it looped up, there was a large jumble of logs that had fallen down. We checked with a few folks asking if it was worth scrambling over them and then Denis checked it out. The consensus of opinion was the best part of the canyon was the part we'd already done, so it was an easy decision to turn around and see it from the other direction.


It took a while to get back. We hadn't brought snacks...mistake. We stopped at Safeway on the way back and bought supplies for the next few days of meals. 

By the time we got back to the campsite, it was fairly late but we were still hungry for lunch. After lunch, I wandered around the KOA to get my exercise in. Jim and Ardith made dinner. It was nice to have a break from cooking and cleaning up.

Location: Fern Canyon, California 95555, USA

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