Page 150 - 2017 Travel Guide to California

HUMBOLDT COUNTY
Land of tall trees and craft beer
»EXPLORE,
IMBIBE,
INDULGE,
ENJOY!
Eureka-Humboldt
Visitors Bureau
redwoods.info
HUMBOLDT COUNTY IS FAMOUS the
world over for its cloud-scraping forests,
but there’s plenty else to do while you give
your neck a rest from all that craning.
You might, for example, investigate the
region’s fascination with a certain green
bud. No, not that one. Humboldt might be as
renowned for cannabis cultivation as Napa
is for Cabernet, but that crop is mostly for
export. The bud that obsesses Humboldters
these days is the hop.
LOST COAST LIGTHOUSE, top; Fern Canyon
hike, below; Chieftan in the bay and Carson
Mansion in the background, bottom.
Brewpubs & Cider Presses
With five destination-worthy brewpubs
and microbreweries within 10 miles of
Eureka, Humboldt has become a mecca for
lovers of craft beer. Some venues sit atop
bluffs with riverine views, others operate
out of hipster industrial parks.
148 2017 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A
B Y P E T E R W A T T S
From Humboldt Brewing Co.’s Great
White Beer to the Redwood Curtain
Brewing Co.’s hop-crazy Space Oddity
Double India Pale Ale, there’s a pint for
every palate. If cider’s more your taste, the
Humboldt Cider Co. offers refreshing
organic brews made exclusively from Hum-
boldt County apples.
Chocolate & Oysters
In a little plant in downtown Eureka, two
former woodworkers, Adam Dick and
Dustin Taylor, produce some of the nation’s
most well-regarded chocolate at Dick Taylor
Craft Chocolate. Roasting, refining and
conching raw cacao into a silky finished
product, it’s “good every time,” according to
Sandra Boynton, author of Chocolate: The
Consuming Passion.
Humboldt Bay’s clean water, muscular
tides and temperate climate make it a para-
dise for oysters. Roughly 70 percent of all
California oysters come from its chilly
water, and you can taste them fresh out of
the bay while hopping among a handful of
oyster bars in Eureka’s waterfront Old
Town. And if that’s still not fresh enough
for you, you can go out onto the water and
harvest your own on a tour organized by the
Humboldt Bay Tourism Center in Eureka.
Oh, and if it’s that other little green bud
that interests you, note that Californians
recently voted to legalize it for recre-
ational use.
HUMBOLDT COUNTY CVB