The ancestral Klamath River once carved Fern Canyon, flowing through this ravine millions of years ago and depositing gravel from nearby mountains. The canyon is named for the five-finger ferns and several other ancient fern species that grow on the 50-foot-high walls through which Home Creek runs.

Home Creek empties into the sands of Gold Bluff Beach on the northern California Pacific coast. Spring water seeps from behind its cobblestone walls, embroidered with ferns, creating a misty, fertile microclimate reminiscent of the movie Jurassic Park. In fact, Steven Spielberg captured scenes here for one of the films in that series, describing the canyon as "an unforgettable natural wonder."

Botanically abundant as it is now, Fern Canyon's present size and shape did not evolve naturally. Late-19th-century miners directed high-pressure water cannons at its walls, washing away the soil to uncover gold (little was found). What remained was a level bottom and narrow, near-perpendicular walls, entirely stripped of vegetation. Remarkably, nature rebounded; a century later, ferns covered its walls, and trees, such as the one in this photograph that had fallen from its forested rim, channeled dawn’s vaporous sunbeams.