Redwood National Park, 11-Jul
Another day with a longer single hike. This time we went to a fern-lined canyon, which was even more interesting than it sounds.
Unlike the first couple of days, this time we drove south to the Murrelet State Wilderness part of Redwood National Park. It's about 45 minutes south of where we were staying, so we met up in the morning to figure out carpooling. One complication was that there were two options: the longer hike that we did or two shorter hikes. Even though we were starting at the same visitor center, we would finish at different times, so the group doing the shorter hikes went in one car, and the rest of us took two cars.
The trail we were taking was pretty much a straight shot. There were a couple of places where the trail split, but it was very easy to tell which way to go. We were getting pretty used to redwoods after the first couple of days, but there were still a lot of oohs and aahs as we went through the forest. We were going through a canyon with a stream at the bottom, which we crossed several times.
Every now and then, we were wondering if what we were going through was Fern Canyon since we saw a lot of ferns around us, but then we saw a sign indicating we were not far away. It was quite obvious when the foliage opened up, and we saw a fern-covered canyon with a stream going down the middle. We all slowed way down to look and take pictures. In some places, there was a moss strip going down the canyon where water was dripping.
After making it through the canyon, we got to another parking lot, which has more direct access to the canyon, but there's a lottery for spots. We went closer to the beach to have lunch, and it was nice to sit down for a while.
Lunch eaten, we started heading back, knowing we had a bit of climbing to do. Fortunately, it wasn't very steep, even though there were many miles for us to go.
Once we got into the parking lot, we all decompressed a bit, then went into the cars for the drive back. Back at the hotel, Melody and I did laundry. We were lucky that there was one washer and then one dryer available. We quickly laid out the mostly dry clothes and zipped over to the restaurant where the group was saving a couple of seats for us. We had a view of the bay, as well as one platform with sea lions hanging out. After we were done, we were ready to call it a night.
