Fern Canyon

The canyon is the patient work of Home Creek, which looks too small to have done it. Over the ages the creek sliced down through soft sedimentary soils, leaving behind sheer walls that never dry out. Sea fog rolls in off the nearby Pacific, groundwater seeps steadily through the rock, and that endless moisture is what lets ferns blanket the vertical faces where little else could hold on.

At least five kinds of fern share the walls, among them five-finger, sword, deer, lady, and chain fern, along with mosses and other moisture-loving plants. Some of these are old plant lineages, families that were already ancient when the first flowering plants appeared, so walking the canyon really is a walk back through deep botanical time.

The result is a corridor of living green, cool and quiet, with light filtering down softly and water trickling everywhere. It is small, but it rewards slow looking, close up at the delicate fronds and the drops of water beading on them.

Fern Canyon's primeval look has made it a favorite of filmmakers looking for a world before people. It stood in as a backdrop in The Lost World, the second Jurassic Park film, and has appeared in the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs and an IMAX dinosaur feature as well. Its reputation as a place dinosaurs might still be hiding is the story everyone repeats.

But the movies only borrowed what the canyon already had. What makes it look like a lost world is real: the great height of the fern-covered walls, the ancient plant families, the constant water and fog, and the total absence of anything modern once you are inside. You do not need the special effects to feel it.

It is worth going in with fresh eyes rather than only hunting for the film scenes. The canyon is more wonderful as itself, a genuine relic of an older, wetter, greener world, than as a movie set.

The canyon opens near Gold Bluffs Beach, a long, wild sweep of dark sand backed by golden bluffs. The name comes from the gold rush era, when miners found fine gold in the black beach sand after gold was discovered on this coast around 1850. That rush brought a wave of settlers and was devastating to the Native people who had long lived here, a hard history behind the pretty name.

Today the beach is part of the park, empty and windswept, strewn with driftwood and dunes and worth a walk in its own right. Between the beach and the canyon, big herds of Roosevelt elk graze the meadows and grassy flats, and they often stand in or cross the access road.

These are large wild animals, and while it is a thrill to see them so close, the rule is simple: stay well back, keep quiet, and never approach or get between animals. Watching a herd move across the meadow with the sea behind them is one of the lasting memories of a trip out here.

The approach is part of the adventure. From Highway 101 just north of Orick you turn onto Davison Road, an unpaved gravel road that winds several miles through redwood forest and out along the beach to the trailhead, with a couple of shallow creek crossings on the way. The road is narrow and slow and strictly limits vehicle size, with no vehicles over about twenty-four feet long or eight feet wide and no trailers at all, so bring a smaller car.

In the summer season a timed day-use vehicle permit is required to enter the Gold Bluffs Beach area and reach Fern Canyon, and it is capacity-limited, so reserve it before you make the drive. Outside those months no permit is needed, though the road and creek can be rougher.

Once at the canyon, expect to cross Home Creek again and again. Summer footbridges and planks keep most people dry, but in the off season you simply wade, so wear closed-toe shoes that can get soaked and count on wet feet. Give the loop a leisurely hour, longer if you connect to the redwood trails above, and treat the whole outing as a half day well spent from a base in Orick.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.