Page 140 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

NORTH COAST
Settle in to this lush land of redwood forests, fishing harbors and Victorian villages
B Y J O H N F L I N N
TOP CITIES
Mendocino, Eureka, Crescent City, Fort Bragg,
Garberville, Arcata, Ukiah, Cloverdale, Ferndale
GATEWAY
The Arcata-Eureka Airport (EKA), 16 miles (26 km) from
downtown Eureka, has service from San Francisco and
other hubs, but no international flights.
TOURISM WEBSITES
northcoastca.com
redwoods.info
visitmendocino.com
Until you’ve seen one up close, it’s hard to grasp just how neck-
craningly tall a coastal redwood is. Remember the
gargantuan Saturn V, the 35-story-high rocket that sent astro-
nauts to the moon? The largest Sequoia sempervirens would tower over
that, topping out at 379 feet.
These 3,000-year-old arboreal titans—nature’s loftiest skyscrapers—
grow in only one place in the world: a narrow strip of fog-shrouded
mountains along California’s wild and relatively unvisited North Coast.
POPULATION
782,000
NORTH
COAST
The Redwood Highway
Old-growth redwoods are preserved in a chain of parks strung along
Highway 101, known in these parts as the Redwood Highway. In
southern Humboldt County, Humboldt Redwoods State Park strad-
dles the scenic drive known as the Avenue of the Giants. In northern
Humboldt and Del Norte counties, a cluster of parks—Redwood
National Park and Prairie Creek Redwoods, Del Norte Coast Redwoods
and Jedediah Smith Redwoods state parks—form one contiguous red-
wood reserve.
The sounds of chainsaws and buzzing sawmills that once domi-
nated the North Coast are rapidly fading as the lumber industry winds
down. In former mill towns such as Fort Bragg, tourism is replacing
timber as innovative galleries, restaurants and brew-pubs spring to life.
138 2014 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A
JOHN BIRCHARD PHOTOGRAPHY. OPPOSITE: PMPHOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK; TOM REICHNER/SHUTTERSTOCK