James Irvine - Fern Canyon - Davison Road - Miner's Ridge Trail Loop

After hiking 3 shorter trails on Day 1 at Redwood National Park, Day 2 would feature two hikes: one just 0.2 miles long, the other 11.6 miles long.  We drove to the Prairie Creek Visitor Center again and this time we had no problems finding a parking spot. Maybe that was because everyone was busy taking pictures of the elk that had made their way into the meadow.  We walked a short distance and took some pictures too before beginning our long hike.

The 11.6 mile loop trail we hiked consists of 4 trails: James Irvine, Fern Canyon, Davison Road, and Miner's Ridge.  It is ranked as one of the world's best redwood hikes.

We started the hike just like yesterday's Big Tree Loop, but branched off at the James Irvine trail.  This trail took us through a very lush creek valley area of the park with large areas of ferns and undergrowth, along with the big redwood trees.  Many portions of this trail had bridges or wooden walkways that would normally help you cross water, but all such areas were dry.

It was wet enough though for a few Banana Slugs to make a run (can they do that?) across the trail.

Banana slug on the run....

After almost 5 miles of hiking through this green wonderland, we finally came to and descended into Fern Canyon.  If you ever visit Redwoods National Park, you need to see this canyon.  We hiked to it, but there is also access via Davison road.  The canyon has 50 foot walls lined with ferns and a creek flowing down the middle. The park puts temporary crossing bridges in place during the busy summer season.

Carol & Maggie use one of the temporary bridges to cross the creek

This portion of our hike was the highlight. We'll let the pictures do the talking:

We did come to one area where trees had jammed up and seemed to block the trail.  But we found our way through and enjoyed hiking through this amazing and beautiful canyon - a mere 0.6 miles long.

Tree blockage along Fern Canyon.....we did make it through.

After arriving at the Fern Canyon parking lot, we were faced with two options for continuing our hike.  We could hike through brush and across a creek to the beach and then walk along the beach for 1.2 miles, or hike the Davison road down to the Gold Bluffs Beach campground.  Since there is an elk herd in this area and it was calving season and the creek area would have to be walked around, we opted for the less scenic Davison road option.

About halfway to Gold Bluffs Beach, Glenn spotted a tree with large antlers.  Those antlers belonged to three LARGE bull elks that were resting in the shade.  They were BIG, and we were about 30 yards away. We did take a few pictures and then moved on, not wanting to get closer and make the local 6 o'clock news.

Big Elk along Davison road

Once we arrived at Gold Bluffs Beach campground, we took a much needed lunch break at a campsite. We had already hiked more than half of the loop, but we were tired and it was very warm weather for the area.

Our last leg of the hike was along the Miner's Ridge trail.

The last stretch of our long loop hike

The trail starts by following a road to the tsunami survival area.  It then wound through much thicker undergrowth and we had to almost bushwhack our way through some portions of this trail.  Eventually we returned to more open forest with lots of redwood trees that included lots of segments with large tree roots.

Start of the Miner's Ridge trail heading up to the tsunami survival area

The beautiful Tiger Lily

This hike took us 5-1/2 hours to complete and we were definitely tired when we arrived back at the visitor center.  It was an incredible and beautiful hike that we would recommend to anyone who visits Redwood National Park.  Fern Canyon, as mentioned before, was the highlight.

Even though we were tired, we still had unfinished business from Day 1.  When we hiked the Big Tree Loop trail on Day 1, we evidently took a wrong turn and missed seeing the Big Tree -- largest in girth from bottom to top.  So we drove along the Drury parkway to the Big Tree trail turnout and hiked 0.2 miles to the tree. Of course by this time the batteries on our camera were dead, so we did not get any pictures of the Big Tree.

So we finished the day with 2 hikes -- 11.8 miles.

We still had one more day to hike and would have to look at our options in the evening after some time soaking in the Jacuzzi.-yes, hiking is tough!

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol (& Maggie too)