Your feet will get wet, your car will need washing and you won't mind. That's just one measure of what awaits on the short, scenic hike through Fern Canyon in Humboldt County's Prairie Creek Redwood State Park.
The Fern Canyon Loop Trail, which neighbors Gold Bluffs Beach, measures barely a mile. The altitude change is only about 150 feet. But the path takes you up a narrow canyon into a primordial jumble of greenery between walls that rise 50 to 80 feet on each side, nearly straight up.
If the scene seems familiar, that's understandable. Parts of "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" were shot here 25 years ago, as were parts of the BBC's "Walking With Dinosaurs." A special-effects team added the film's scampering dinosaurs in postproduction, but as you splash along now, it will be easy enough to imagine a Spinosaurus or Ceratosaurus lurking behind the next log.
