Issue link: http://globelitetravelmarketing.uberflip.com/i/149736
NORTH COAST A lush land of redwoods, fishing harbors, Victorian villages, even Bigfoot! OLD GROWTH REDWOODS are a unique and awe-inspiring feature of the North Coast. by john flinn TOP CITIES Mendocino, Eureka, Crescent City, Fort Bragg, Garberville, Arcata, Ukiah, Cloverdale, Ferndale INTERNATIONAL 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 visitredwoodcoast.com visitmendocino.com POPULATION 782,000 NORTH COAST 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-storyhigh rocket that sent astronauts to the moon? The largest Sequoia sempervirens grow even higher than 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. 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 straddles 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. The sounds of chainsaws and buzzing sawmills that once dominated 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. Although it's sometimes called the Redwood Empire, the North Coast is more than just tall trees: It's also salmon-fishing boats bobbing in tiny harbors; Roosevelt elk bugling across misty meadows; steam trains chuffing through a damp and dripping forest; hole-in-the-wall restaurants serving fish smoked according to traditional Native American recipes; vineyards close enough to the coast to catch the salt spray; an old Russian trading fort; handsome Victorian villages; possible glimpses of the elusive creature known as Bigfoot; wealthy, tie-dyed growers of the region's largest cash crop, which doctors in California can legally prescribe; and bouts of inspired lunacy such as elaborate sculptures racing across the landscape. 2 0 1 3 t r av e l gu i d e to c a l i fo rnia 1 4 1