After a little bit of a restless night’s sleep – I had to pee but had done so much bear research I’d scared myself into getting out of the tent in the middle of the night – it was time for our first full day at Redwood National Park! Since we were at the northern edge of the park, we first drove the Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway.
Jenna, Austin, and I had woken early to make sure we made good use of the sun and this meant our car was pretty much the only one on the road. I’d heard about terrible traffic along this road, but driving it right at sun up was awesome! We stopped whenever we felt like and got some quick shots of the more “touristy” spots.
We passed by the “Trees of Mystery” which we kept off our itinerary but did make a quick stop at to get some pics of the great Paul Bunyan and his ox. Also, I totally fell in love with a bear statue (which would also be the closest we came to a bear all weekend). At the end of our drive, we stopped to check out “The Big Tree.”
This is supposed to be the thickest tree in the park, so that was pretty great to see. Honestly, all the trees were so huge it was insane. I had never seen trees this large before, and to see a whole forest of them made me happy. We were visiting Redwood National Park during it’s 100th year of operation, but these trees are obviously hundreds of years old. (Research says millions of years old and that is mind boggling – haha!)
Next stop was the visitor center to get our Passport stamps and permits for the private trail we’d be tackling later in the day. Before that trail though, our agenda had us heading to Fern Canyon, which I’d heard great things from the locals the evening before. I went in knowing we wouldn’t have time to do everything on this quick trip, so I was glad one of the things we’d picked was getting talked up. Spoiler alert: it did not disappoint.
Even though I’d done the research, you never quite know what to expect, and a trail of ferns did not seem as exciting as the trees we were supposed to be enjoying. We headed out on this hike a little unsure of the route, but it was populated enough we followed in line down wood planks over creek waterways. It seemed we were hiking through a mostly dry creek bed, which was full of ferns and other greenery up the sides. It was gorgeous.
The further down we went, the trail lost a lot of people because the wooden planks had stopped. Halfway through you had to commit to danger (and the possibility of water) to keep going. We were on the hunt for some “falls” Austin had seen on the map, but the water was mostly in small streams it was hard to imagine us running into actual falls.
I was glad I wore my hiking boots because I definitely slipped on at least a dozen rocks, meaning I stumbled into the pools of water quite a bit. There were also a ton of overturned trees we were having to scramble over, so it was super fun! I will admit I did get stabbed by a broken tree branch, resulting in a gnarly bruise, but also adding to my excitement. I’ll say it a million times – I live for the experience!
We made it to the falls, which was pretty much just a dripping, wet wall, but it was still worth it. The hike was so much fun, not too strenuous, and for several stretches it was just the three of us. I think a lot of people stop halfway, but I suggest you keep going! The whole trail system is made for adventure.