This hike is an easy stroll through some very, very large trees - most still upright,
some not.
The Boy Scout tree itself is actually two trees that grew together ages ago, forming a monster 20' or so in diameter! Oddly - despite the name of the trail and the otherwise good state park signage - there's no official sign directing you to the tree, which sits about 50' above the trail.
About 0.5 mi beyond the tree lies Fern Falls, which after four years of drought and this late in the season, isn't much to look at.
We were getting neck strain from looking UP at the trees, so we took to occassionally looking for the small stuff on the forest floor,
some of which was looking back at us.
All told, a short (5.8 mi RT, 600' EG) very pleasant way to break-up our drive to the coast.
After a night in Crescent City, we drove down to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park for a hike through the Murrelet State Wilderness to the coast. Our plan was an out-and-back on the James Irvine Trail from park headquarters but this would become a loop (
) as we discovered trails not shown on the CalTopo maps. This is part of Hike #100 in Sullivan's Oregon Coast & Coast Range guide, but we did a much longer loop than he discribes.
So, over the creek,
and through the woods on the Irvine trail, which had been re-routed up out of the Godwood Ck drainage.
Again, an easy hike through groves of big trees,
and sometimes the trees themselves.
It was interesting to note that the clover ground cover was green on top (like all the other plants) but bright red underneath.
After 5 mi we reached Fern Canyon, which is a 50' deep canyon lined with seven different species of fern (Transcript). It feels prehistoric to such an extent that Spielberg chose it as a location for Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World.
Fern Canyon empties in to a day use area at the end of the Gold Bluffs Beach road.
To make a loop, we walked about 1 mi S on the beach road to the Miner's Ridge TH,
and then took that remarkably gentle and easy trail back through the forest to park HQ.
An excellent day in the woods, along with a look at a unique canyon and a (short) visit to the beach! Win, win!
Overall, 13 mi RT, 1100' EG.
