Fern Canyon
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park (Del Norte County) · near Orick / Eureka · North Coast
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- easy
- Route type
- loop
- Distance
- 1.5 miles
- Elevation gain
- 50 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Year-round · Winter and spring bring maximum fern density · Summer most accessible
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No hiking permit. California State Parks fee ($12 day use). Summer vehicle reservation required for Gold Bluffs Beach campground road — book at ReserveCA.gov. Alternatively hike from Elk Prairie campground via the James Irvine Trail (9 miles round trip, no reservation needed for that trailhead).
- How hard the permit is to get
- 0 of 5
What is here
- Features
- 50-foot canyon walls covered floor-to-ceiling in five fern species · Filming location for Jurassic Park 2 (The Lost World) · Makeshift log bridges across Home Creek inside the canyon · Adjacent old-growth redwood forest on Irvine Trail
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Prairie Creek Redwoods is 45 minutes north of Eureka and 50 miles south of the Oregon border on Hwy 101. The Trees of Mystery attraction in Klamath (30 minutes north) is a genuinely enjoyable kitschy California experience — a gondola through old-growth redwoods with a 50-foot-tall Paul Bunyan at the entrance. Combine Fern Canyon with a drive on the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway through Prairie Creek's ancient redwood forest for a complete North Coast day.
- Nickname
- The Jurassic Park Trail
The guide
Fern Canyon is one of those places that looks so improbable on first sight that visitors routinely stop and stare before enteri…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Fern Canyon — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 41.3986, -124.0663