A Jurassic Journey

The morning mist lazily moved ashore, settling like a sullen ghost upon the virgin forest. Ancient Redwoods with loose, green moss frocks rose out of the grey shadows. Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock stood watching, serious soldiers on guard duty. Douglas Fir shivered in the mist, shaking water droplets on to the damp forest floor, lush with vegetation. Silver skinned Alders bowed over as if to drink from the nearby Creek. A lone stag wandered before us, antlers aloft. Rings of small white mushrooms completed the fairy tale imagery.

And so we began our Jurassic Journey into Fern Canyon located in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

The damp vertical canyon walls of Fern Canyon rose above the gentle flow of Godwood Creek.  We could see many varieties of moss and tanoaks growing from the walls. The whole place felt old and timeless. The canyon got its name from the unique growth of five different species of fern that thrive in the dense damp conditions; five-fingered fern, lady fern, sword fern, deer fern and chain fern. These ferns, older than dinosaurs, were the original oxygenators on the planet. You could imagine the first creatures with lungs breathing in the air made by these astonishing, primeval plants.

Through the mist, we hiked over rickety wooden bridges, jumped across narrow parts of the Creek, found stepping stones or fallen trees on the wider parts as we traversed back and forth making our way through the canyon trail. The air was cool and wet and green. The ferns were incredible and seemed to surround us in all dimensions.

​Not surprisingly, Fern Canyon was the shooting location for the Star Wars movie, "Return of the Jedi." It was the home of the little furry Ewoks portrayed as living on a distant moon called Endor. As we were walking on the trail, it felt like we were on some distant moon in a far flung corner of the cosmos and would perhaps encounter primitive furry alien beings at any moment. It felt like the further we walked into the canyon, the further we were walking back in time.

​Jurassic Park II was also filmed in Fern Canyon. If we couldn't stretch our imagination to little Ewoks, we could certainly stretch into believing dinosaurs roamed freely through the canyon at some time or another in its history.

​What a glorious place!