Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Redwood National and State Parks, CA

In my older posts, I featured the awe inspiring Fern Canyon, part of Redwood National and State Parks, in Northern California which is both a World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve. Fellow blogging friend Sharkbytes, a botanical enthusiast and a long distance hiker, showed interest in knowing what kind of ferns these are.

Fern Canyon, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

If you take a closer look at the picture above (you may click on the above picture to enlarge), you will notice a combination of different ferns. Some of these exquisite ferns are ancient species whose ancestry can be traced back 325 million years.  The 3 major types of fern in the canyon are:

Five- Fingered Ferns

Delicate Lady Ferns

Sword Ferns

Five- fingered ferns shroud the walls of the canyon the most.  However, on the ground, everywhere, the most common is the sword fern. But you will see all these 3 types of fern clinging to the cliffs of the canyon walls. 

What else are in here at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park other than Fern Canyon? Of course, there are still the tall redwood trees,

Redwoods @ Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

( if you missed my 2 previous posts on redwood trees, you can see them here and here )

interesting moss covered branches that line the trail by Big Tree Wayside Trail,

drooping moss covered branches @ Big Tree Wayside Trail

( here, the very tall ferns lining the trail are mostly the sword ferns) 

and some hollow trees covered with moss that look like cave.

A Hollow Big Redwood Tree Surrounded by Small Moss Covered Branches

And of course, there is the prairie graced by elks.

Elk Prairie

Roosevelt Elks

These elks are huge that I was at first scared to take a picture of them up close, but after we have an eye to eye, they seemed to understand that we are not going to cause any harm, that they continued grazing happily on grass.

♥♥