We had a smooth morning and filled up with the breakfast at our Best Western in Eureka, CA before hitting the road. We left around 8am and, fortunately, we had an easy 1.5 hr drive to the Fern Canyon trailhead while the kids read books and Beckett listened to his new Paw Patrol tonie. Yesterday, we set an alarm to go online and snag a reservation to park at this trailhead. It was sold out within 5 minutes because it is such a sought-after spot! We are so glad we were able to go!
Towards the end of the drive to Fern Canyon, we entered a fun dusty dirt road through the Redwood forest, including 2 stream crossings which our Highlander tackled with no issues!
For unknown reasons, a certain 3 year old was super grumpy as we were leaving the parking lot to start our hike, but within the first couple minutes of the hike, we saw a beautiful female Elk, which completely distracted Beckett and changed his mood for the better! We happened to be right next to a park ranger who told us some facts about the elk before we continued down the trail.
Fern Canyon Loop Trail was one of the best trails we have ever been on as a family, and honestly, it was one of my favorite nature spots of all time. I was absolutely in awe and couldn’t help feeling like a child again as we were exploring the trail and playing in the stream. It was such a unique area and as a biologist there was just so much natural beauty to admire.
This was one of the filming spots of Jurassic Park and it truly does seem like dinosaurs could walk around the corner at any moment. 50-foot-tall walls of ferns lined both sides of the trail with a creek running through the middle and huge fallen trees to climb on.
Both kids were having a blast splashing through the stream. After about an hour and a half, Brooke’s feet and ankles did start getting pretty cold and sore, so Jay gave her a ride on his shoulders and I gave Beckett a piggy back ride for the final little push to finish the remainder of the trail.
We were in Fern Canyon for about 2 hours total before getting back in the car for an hour long drive to our next adventure.
We spent the afternoon at Trees of Mystery, which was a fun little touristy area with canopy walks through the redwoods, a gondola ride, gift shop, and facts about the Redwoods throughout the trails.
We weren’t sure if Beckett would like the canopy walk, but once he climbed up the stairs and saw all the cool bridges suspended between the trees he had a blast following behind Brooke who was confidently leading us through and keeping track of the “no more than 9 people at a time on the bridge” rule.
We only spent about an hour and a half at Trees of Mystery since the kids were getting tired and we wanted to start the next long leg of our drive.
We exited Redwood National Park and drove over 5 hours to Oregon! Thanks, for the memories, California! Luckily, the kids are used to these long stints and have been doing great so far!
We had an easy dinner at McDonald’s and got the kids ready for bed so they could fall asleep. We only drove for about an hour after they fell asleep, because Beckett woke up crying, so we didn’t push the drive any farther and got a hotel in Salem, Oregon for the night. I was ready to stretch my legs and get into bed anyway!
