California Coastal Redwoods
Taking a trip where you can get away from the crowds on a three-day weekend is not easy; people travel in every direction, and many of them seem as determined as we are to get far enough away to have some quiet. Heading up the California coast almost to the Oregon border over Memorial Day seemed to be sufficient. Not only were there relatively few people, but the combination of giant redwood forests and lush fern canyons are sufficiently otheworldly and primitive that film crews used that area for many scenes in the movie "Lost World: Jurassic Park."

A number of factors combine to make this region very special, particularly at this time of year; the aforementioned giant redwood trees (some over 100 meters tall), the fern canyons, the nearby rugged ocean coast, and the rhododendrons that grow and bloom in the forests at this time of year.
Fern Canyon, Northern California Coast Rhododendron, Northern California Forest floor greenery, Northern California
Forest flor ferns and greenery, Northern California Ferns over stream, Northern California Patterns in beach sand at sunset, Northern California