Page 98 - 2024/2025 Travel Guide to CALIFORNIA

NORTH COAST
Beyond the redwood forests lies a land of Victorian villages and picture-perfect fishing harbors
TOP CITIES
Mendocino, Eureka, Crescent City, Fort Bragg, Garberville, Arcata, Ukiah, Cloverdale, Ferndale
DOMESTIC 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
visitdelnortecounty.com northofordinaryca.com northcoastca.com visitredwoods.com visitmendocino.com redwoodcoastparks.com
POPULATION
1,003,000
NORTH COAST
BY JOHN FLINN
This should put things in perspective: The North Coast’s tallest building is only 77 feet tall, but its tallest tree, named Hyperion, stands 379 feet tall. Until you’ve seen one up close, it’s hard to grasp just how neck-craningly high a coastal redwood tree can grow. 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 rela- tively unvisited 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 redwood reserve.
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