The James Irvine Trail runs 5.05 miles from Prairie Creek Visitor Center to the Fern Canyon Loop in Redwood National Park. This popular trail is topped by a 300'+ canopy and some of the world's oldest redwoods. Sitka spruce, red alder and bigleaf maple appear as you transition to a coastal forest ecosystem on the descent to Fern Canyon, a steep-walled slot that supports a unique microhabitat at the mouth of Home Creek near Gold Bluffs Beach.

Today's redwoods descended from conifers that thrived across Europe, Asia and North America during the Jurassic period over 145M years ago

Roosevelt Elk are the largest elk species in North America, with females reaching 600 lbs and mature bulls nearing 1000 lbs

As the earth gradually cooled and became drier after the Jurassic period, ancestral redwoods evolved into 3 distinct species in 3 distinct regions

Occasional floods rush through Fern Canyon that strip vegetation from the creek banks and limit tree growth to high terraces

Salmonberry thrives in the understory of coastal forests, and come out in abundance along the lower James Irvine Trail in early summer

The Fern Canyon Loop leads right through narrow, fern-lined slots carved by Home Creek

Coast Redwoods are the tallest trees on earth, reaching heights of 370' and diameters of 22'

Sitka Spruce forests near the coast create an essential wind and salt-air buffer for inland redwoods groves

The Western azalea is a deciduous plant in the rhododendron family native to southern Oregon and Northern California; it thrives in moist, acidic soils of redwood forests and in blooms in June - July

Redwood forests are believed to generate the highest volume of living matter per land surface unit; this achievement is largely due to the incredible height and density of the trees

Coho salmon return to Prairie Creek each fall and winter to spawn, and can sometimes be seen from the bridge adjacent to the Prairie Creek Visitor Center

Ferns are an ancient group of vascular plants that reproduce through spores rather than seeds

So close but so far! A potentially uncrossable marsh separates Fern Canyon Trailhead from Gold Bluffs Beach

Seeps and fog keep Fern Canyon moist and cool during peak summer months

Redwoods can live 2000 years and are susceptible to few if any diseases; their primary natural threats are wind and prolonged drought

Basal burls can sprout a new tree when the main trunk is damaged

Gold Bluffs Beach is accessible from Fern Canyon Trailhead and numerous points along Davison Road