August 3, "day 5, he does dishes" she says

The Pizza King
Fern Canyon Loop
Fern walls!
massive, natural destruction
fern canyon trail
crossing the creek
banana slug- an integral part of the forest
james irvine trail
getting goin

got up and headed to Prairie Creek redwood state park and ate some breakfast. We hiked the James Irvine Trail (4.6 mi) to the Fern Canyon Loop (1 mi). THe James Irvine trail is pretty sweet- you're hiking a trail with many little bridges over creeks, some switchbacks, and you're
up along ridges most of the way. THis provides a great view even at eye level. THe forest here is so dense! Only saw maybe five others on this trail. Fern Canyon Loop is an easy loop, but absolutely insane. the main part of hte loop is thorugh a canyon along a creek= the canyon walls are at least 60 feet high and covered in ferns, making for very incredible walls on both sides of you. the trail has small wooden boards to criss cross the creek as you hike too. we heard some of Jurassic Park was filmed here because of the crazy scenery. THis trail is easily accessible from hte other end so this trail was pretty crowded. It starts right at the beach though too, and we read there are some good waterfalls only a mile away that fall onto the beach. We saw a huge male elk here too, with an awesome rack! we then hiked back up the loop to the james irvine trail and made it a loop by cutting over on the Clintonia Trail to the Miner's Ridge Trail, both
equally as impressive as James Irvine Trail. We were pretty beat at this point though, so it was a bit more of hiking to get back to the car, but we still enjoyed ourselves along the way. After this, we headed up to Crescent City and checked on a couple camp sites at their city visitor center. they told us that one site we were considering is insane with mosquitos (Lake Earl) so we decided against that one. We ate at the Pizza King, which was super good and cheap, so ifyou're in the area hiking or camping, this is a good spot to check out. then we went to our camp spot trailhead, Nickel Creek Walk-in. Its about a half mile hike to camp,which is an awesome hike up along a cliff at the edge of the ocean. The camp is by a creek that empties to the ocean so its in a small valley and only about 100 yards from the beach. THe beachhas an aweomse little arch in a rock, lots of driftwood, and tidepools during low tide. THis spot is free, with no reservations, but you're supposed to get a permit now for free, but we didn't have one and it wasnt' a problem. there's five sites, which are all pretty big and can fit a few tents each it seemed so sharing sites would be easy. the sunset here was awesome tonight-our first along the coast where we could see it actually (no fog, trees, or hills blocking it). we made a fire with driftwood, but mel went to bed early and i followed after a while. awesome, exhausting day.