Page 134 - 2018 Travel Guide to California

DEL NORTE COUNTY
Primeval forests that are out of this world
»HIKE, DRIVE,
REFLECT,
EXPLORE
Crescent City/
Del Norte County
Visitor Information
delnorte.org
exploredelnorte.com
1-800-343-8300
PACIFIC OCEAN OVERLOOK, top; Paul
Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox welcome
visitors to Trees of Mystery, below.
STAR WARS CREATOR George Lucas
wanted “a jungly kind of place, the color of
life, a cradle-of-life environment” to repre-
sent the forest moon of Endor in Return of
the Jedi.
He found his home for the Ewoks in Del
Norte County, in the far upper left-hand
corner of California, not far from the
Oregon border.
Some of the state’s most gorgeously
primeval redwood forests abound here,
along with 37 miles of rugged, wave-bat-
tered coastline and great fishing.
The county boasts only one incorporated
city—Crescent City, pop. 7,600—and even
that has tenuous footing in this wild land.
Much of the city was destroyed by a
tsunami in 1964, and today one of its most
popular attractions is the Tsunami Histor-
ical Walk, with eight sites within easy
walking distance of downtown.
Del Norte’s crown jewel is Jedediah
Smith Redwoods State Park, just a few
miles inland from Crescent City. There
you’ll find more old-growth redwoods per
132 2018 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
acre than anywhere else in California.
Densely packed with impossibly tall,
impossibly ancient trees, its 10,000 acres
contain 7 percent of all old-growth red-
woods in the world.
Howland Hill Road, an old stagecoach
trail that cuts through the park, has been
described as “hiking in a car” and “one of
the best redwood drives anywhere.” Be pre-
pared for anything from a smooth ride to a
juddery succession of potholes, depending
on how recently it’s been resurfaced.
Lighthouse buffs make a beeline for the
Battery Point Lighthouse, which has been in
operation since before the Civil War. You
can only get there at low tide, so be sure to
check the timetables to make sure you have
enough time to get back.
Be aware that the county name is not
pronounced as you would expect. It’s “Del
Nort,” not the normal Spanish pronuncia-
tion of “Del Nor-tay.” That’s because the
area was originally settled by dairy farmers
from the Azore Islands, who used the Por-
tuguese pronunciation.
JEFFREY M. FRANK/SHUTTERSTOCK; OVIDIU HRUBARU/SHUTTERSTOCK