Family Jaunt to Prairie Creek Redwoods SP

The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday was celebrated in these parts by a family outdoors excursion to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.  We drove with the kids about 45 minutes north to Elk Meadow, with hopes of seeing and hiking amidst the large Roosevelt Elk herd up there (we saw a few off Davidson road and others on the road to Gold Bluffs Beach but none in the actual meadow).  We had a stunner of a Humboldt County January day with bright sunshine all day long.

We did the short hike to Trillium Falls, which Kelvin and I had done back in August. Niall wanted to be carried, but Iver (who only likes to be photographed in silly poses) was a super hiker trouper, and was mad that we didn't do the whole loop. 

\

We continued on to the Day Use fee area (which was actually, surprisingly free today on the holiday!) by Fern Canyon, a hike we haven't done in close to ten years, when we were still Humboldt County newbies (we didn't drag the kids on this hike today but may at some point in the future)! 

We saw several tagged elk friends along the way.

We had lovely play time and lunch at Gold Bluffs Beach, where it was surprisingly calm (windless) and quite warm. 

Iver had fun "playing tag" with the waves.

It's hard to get 5/5 family members cooperating for a photo. 

(we have a soon-to-be threenager on our hands).

It was really refreshing to get just a little bit outside town to see some of the lovely Humboldt County scenery that we don't get to very often (but should!). I'm eternally grateful for such beautiful (and so accessible) surroundings-- time spent in nature is so good for the soul.