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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – frosty – 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 – Redwoods National and State Parks – Fern Canyon

On The Road – frosty – 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 – Redwoods National and State Parks – Fern Canyon

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frosty

Fern Canyon is very different part of the park, in that the main focus isn’t redwood forests. It’s a 50-foot canyon covered with sword, deer, and five-finger ferns. Access is on an unpaved road with a couple of stream crossings, and the walk itself included wading upstream.

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon 9
Redwoods National Park, CA

Crossing the stream

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon 8
Redwoods NP, CA

First view of the canyon

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon 7
Redwoods NP, CA

Five-finger ferns

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon 6
Redwoods NP, CA

Walking upstream

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon 5
Redwoods NP, CA

Blockade

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon 4
Redwoods NP, CA

Canyon walls, redwoods above

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon 3
Redwoods NP, CA

Canyon walls

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon 2
Redwoods NP, CA

Notice the planks to cross the stream, well after our feet were already soaked.

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon 1
Redwoods NP, CA

Davison Road, on the way to the canyon. This was second-growth redwoods, we saw stumps from the old-growth logging everywhere.

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 - Redwoods National and State Parks - Fern Canyon
Redwoods NP, CA

Varied Thrush.  One of my West Coast birding friends told me to look for it and said it had taken him many tries. The guidebook describes it as “common but elusive in the wet forest of the Northwest.” I feel very lucky to see it – it was on the path right in front of me.

Reader Interactions

16Comments

  3. 3.

    Scout211

    We’ve only been to Fern Canyon in the summer or fall so the hike and drive through all the water is new to me.  The ferns in that canyon are  stunning.

  5. 5.

    mvr

    This gives a nice sense of the variety in that national park.  And I really like the Thrush photo.

    In the 1970s I used to hitch hike down from Portland to this park and camp along the ocean. I did it at least twice. I don’t know where specifically but I remember I was on a bluff along a beach and pretty much by myself.

    One advantage of that trip was an Arby’s-style fast food building converted to a pie shop on route 99 going north, where we would go for pie hourly if we were having trouble getting a ride going North.

    Thanks for reminding me of this and the nice photos. I don’t believe I had seen the canyon.

  7. 7.

    cope

    That’s a lot of beautiful green, thanks.  My geologist’s eye wants the green gone to be able to see the walls of the canyon and read its story. I am guessing, however, that there’s no time of year when that is possible

    Thanks again.

  8. 8.

    anitamargarita

    Beautiful pictures! I love the varied thrush. I lived in Juneau many years before I actually saw one,.

  9. 9.

    Yutsano

    BIRB!!!

    Love the lush green of Fern Canyon. It reminds me of getting “lost*” on base when I was a kid.

    *We were never really lost, as long as we could find our way back to the main road. And somehow we always did.

  10. 10.

    way2blue

    Fern Canyon looks  straight  out of a Star Wars movie.   Walking through the lush green, steep walls is well worth the wet shoes I think.

  11. 11.

    Grumpy Old Railroader

    WARNING! Elk have the right of way on all trails between Fern Canyon and Elk Prairie Redwoods campground. Grumpy Jr and I were on the 7 mile trek and several times we had to step off to the side of the trail 20 feet to let them go by (Did you know elk are like 50 feet tall when you come around a corner and meet them face to face?)

  13. 13.

    Interstadial

    @cope: The ferns are evergreen but some of the shrubs hanging over the sides of the canyon are probably deciduous.  Redwood forests have a mixture of evergreen and deciduous shrubs.

  14. 14.

    Dan B

    I’ve always called five fingered ferns Maidenhair Ferns so this is a new name.  There are several variants.  I planted an evergreen form that wasn’t a fingered form at my partner’s house.  It’s grown into a big patch.  Fern Canyon seems a bit ordinary to this Seattle resident.  There are many similar here that are wonderful respits from summer heat.  The Columbia River Gorge has dozens, complete with waterfalls.

  15. 15.

    frosty

    @Albatrossity: @anitamargarita: ​
     Oddly enough, this was the second one I saw. The first was just off to the side as we were driving across the stream. I saw it, jumped out, got a picture, then got this better one on my walk.
    Amazing luck!​

  16. 16.

    StringOnAStick

    Now I know the name of five fingered ferns!  I saw some last summer near the Oregon coast and liked their asymmetry.

    Now I feel extra lucky to commonly see varied thrush at my feeders in the high desert of central Oregon, but since it’s suburbia, it’s wetter than most local forest and more like the habitat along the river.

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