Day 2: Gold Bluffs and Fern Canyon

I think it cost about $5 for our vehicle to enter Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, but it is a must-see. (It's even a designated World Heritage site and International Biosphere Reserve.) We hit Gold Bluffs Beach first.

Sam really let himself enjoy the beach to the fullest extent. It was about 55 degrees, in addition to a strong chilling wind, but he walked into the tide anyhow. Then he took his shoes off. Then, once his socks were good & wet/sandy, he took his socks off! He never stopped running though - except for these few seconds when he buried his feet.

Charlie was excited to be here too... and very curious about the video camera.

He still likes to talk about the "California Acifica Ocean."

At the far end of the beach, past campsites and more grazing elk, was the hike into Fern Canyon.
So cool. They filmed some of the footage for Jurrasic Park 2 here.

For these family snapshots, we climbed/hoisted ourselves onto a log that crosses above the path and over a stream. Since you can't tell any of that from the picture, here's the same place only with grandpa and Charlie on the path.

Confession: I didn't know about the whole "World Heritage site" thing initially, and I was tired of carrying around two cameras, so I'd left them both in the car. Then it was so unique and amazing that I ran back to the car for my camera and we all did the first third of the hike again "for posterity" as they say.

I don't think anyone minded, but when we finally did leave, we were definitely ready to head back north (about 25 miles) to home base and dinner.

For the record, Sam never once complained about having to hike in wet socks & shoes. (We had tried to dry them off a bit using the car heat vents, but still.)