Redwood Country

California’s Redwood Country Author’s Note: “California’s Redwood Country” will be a welcome perennial getaway once again for many travelers when the coronavirus constraints diminish. This article is one of 30 chapters in my travel guidebook/ebookNorthern California Travel: The Best Options. Folks who love California travel are not just locals and other U.S. citizens. This book is now available also as an ebook in Chinese and as a print book in Chinese. All my Northern California travel guidebooks/ebooks can be seen on my Amazon Author Page. Redwood Country – Images by Lee Foster By Lee Foster California can safely assert three superlatives in one aspect of nature, the world of trees. The redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) along the coast north from San Francisco are magnificent and are the tallest trees on the earth. The presumably tallest examples are in a secret location in Redwood National and State Parks, near Orick. Similarly, the most massive living thing on earth is the inland relative of the coastal redwood. The best example of the inland relative (Sequoia gigantea) can be seen at Sequoia National Park (the General Sherman tree). If superlative trees stir your sense of adventure, California trees offers yet another wonder of nature. That wonder is the oldest living thing on this earth. This distinction goes to the bristlecone pines, which can be seen high in the White Mountains of California, east of Bishop. UNESCO World Heritage Status UNESCO deemed Redwood National and State Parks a “world heritage site” in 1982, recognizing that redwoods are a phenomenon of worldwide interest. These monarchs of the mist have been flourishing for around 20 million years. Currently, they flourish in a long, thin band along the Western U.S. coast. The habitat stretches from southwest Curry County in Oregon to south Monterey County in California, about 10 miles north of Hearst castle. Getting to Redwood Country The main redwood country is not difficult to locate. Simply head north from San Francisco along Highway 101. In about four hours you reach the first stately forests, at small Richardson Grove. Richardson is a fine picnic and camping site. The first substantial groves are at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Coast Highway 1 is the alternative route, scenic but slower, offering many coastal pleasures as well as second-growth redwoods. The coast route could be considered the main side trip in redwood country. You can consider a loop trip going one way on Highway 101 and the other on Highway 1. The main redwoods are north of the juncture of the two roads. On the coast route the choice redwood stops would be Armstrong Redwoods, near Guerneville, on the Russian River, plus the parks along the coast near Mendocino. Redwood Country History Redwoods flourish both north and south of San Francisco, but the northern forests are most worthy today of the capitalized name Redwood Country. Coast redwoods exist along 400 miles between Big Sur and the Oregon coast. Actually, only about 3 percent of the primeval redwood forest remains today. About half of that remaining resource is on protected public lands. The missing 97% has been logged off. The first reports of European contact with redwoods were from south of San Francisco. A priest-botanist in the expedition of Portola noted them in his diary of 1769. This tree was unknown to Europeans. The first American to observe redwoods was the intrepid explorer, Jedediah Smith, who saw the trees in 1822. His name now endures with honor in Redwood Country. The Smith River is a wild no-dams river (the only major remaining no-dams river in California). Jedediah Smith’s name is also on a state redwood park. Native Californians and the Redwoods The native Californians, especially the Yuroks, were well aware of the redwoods and the redwood environment. However, they did not consider it a hospitable habitat. Because the trees cast such shade, forage foods did not flourish beneath them. More abundance would be found in meadow or oak woodland terrain. Native Americans knew that the bark did not burn well. Trunks of the trees were too massive to cut for firewood. However, Yuroks of the north coast split redwood planks to use for construction of their shelters. They also hollowed canoes out of redwood logs. One such canoe can be seen today at Patrick’s Point State Park. Lumbering in Redwood Country Lumbering has been the main recent historical story associated with Redwood Country. The tree’s wood is soft and easy to saw. Although not as strong as Douglas fir, redwood has an attractive red color. Moreover, that color can stabilize to remain red or will weather naturally to a pleasing grey. Redwood finds a market in house siding, decks, and garden lumber. One major virtue of redwood is its ability to withstand weathering and termites without deteriorating. Prolonged moisture will cause most woods to rot. However, redwood will endure. Redwood is one of the most weather-resistant woods found in North America, competing with the cypress of the South. When thinking of the lumber baron era, the place to stop and gaze at is the William Carson Mansion in Eureka. This lavish gingerbread Victorian is one of the finest 19th-century architectural legacies along the north coast. Carson built the house in 1884 at the corner of Second and M streets. Working mills, such as one at Scotia, carry on the story of lumbering today. Redwood lumber shipped to market in small vessels that moved nimbly up and down the coast. The Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City, built in 1856, remains a repository for local history. A lighthouse reduced the loss of wayward ships whose captains were inattentive to the treacherous shorelines. The sturdiness of this lighthouse, perched on a rock, sometimes cut off from land during high tide, became apparent in 1964. On Good Friday on that year an earthquake in Alaska sent a 20-foot-high tsunami wave over the lighthouse. In short, the tsunami failed to dislodge the structure, even though the wave devastated many boats and buildings in Crescent City. Redwood Country Main Attractions Redwood Country’s signature trees begin along Highway 101 north of Leggett at the Richardson Grove. Many more parks lie ahead. The Eel River flows along the highway, to the right. The concept of Roadside Attractions begins to assert itself and divert you with pleasing amusements. You pass the Log House, a house made from a single tree, which is adjacent to the Grandfather Tree, an 1800-year-old gray beard. Following is a roadside stand known as the Legend of Bigfoot shop, displaying a collection of chainsaw art, including depictions of Bigfoot. Bigfoot is the half-man and half-ape creature believed by some to populate the remote areas of this region. If you long to become a true believer in Bigfoot, a few glasses of sacramental California wine can help. Proceeding north, you enter a 31-mile stretch appropriately called The Avenue of the Giants. This extended landscape consists of 70 memorial groves, all part of 51,222- acre Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Follow the side road at Phillipsville along Highway 101 to make the Avenue of the Giants scenic side-road drive. Several turnoff areas along the scenic drive invite you to pause and walk through the groves. Pause to see as many of the groves on both sides of Highway 101 from Phillipsville to Redcrest as your time allows. Founder’s Grove is one of the crucial stops, with trees about 2,500 years old. The Founder’s Tree is 346.1 feet high and was formerly thought to be the tallest of all redwood trees, but the tallest tree is now believed be to a 379-foot tree in the Redwood Creek drainage near Orick. Pause at the Rockefeller Grove After looking at Founder’s Grove, consider a short drive west to the Rockefeller Grove on Mattole Road. The reality here is a poignant example of the need to protect whole watersheds to save prize redwoods. Clear-cut slopes upstream from the prize Rockefeller trees exposed earth that washed into the creek in 1955 and 1964, subsequently undermining some of the giant trees. Silting of streams also damaged the salmon-spawning habitat. Albee Camp, located in an abandoned apple orchard near the Rockefeller Grove, is a lovely site at which to camp or picnic. The informative Humboldt Redwoods Interpretive Center at the Burlington Campground dispenses park information, maps, and books. Ferndale and Eureka Driving north, the towns of Ferndale and Eureka are both worth exploring for their Victorians, shops, small inns, bed-and-breakfast lodgings, and logging-era mementos. At Eureka, stop to visit Fort Humboldt, an 1850s military outpost with many exhibits on the lumber harvesting craft. One amazing tool of the trade was a huge winch called a slackliner, used to bring large logs down steep slopes. The Clarke Memorial Museum in Eureka, 3rd and E streets, has interesting Native American artifacts. Eureka’s Old Town boasts intriguing shops. An excursion boat called the Madaket gets you out on the water for a view of Humboldt Bay. Blue Ox Millworks provides authentic wood reproductions for Victorian restorations. The Samoa Cookhouse on Humboldt Bay serves hearty portions. Decor emphasizes paraphernalia from the logging and milling era, when the cook providing food was a critical component in logger morale. Ferndale’s Victorians and Scotia’s Mills Ferndale, south from Eureka, abounds in carpenter-gothic Victorians, such as the Shaw House, a B&B on Main Street. The Ferndale Museum presents an exceptional display of the daily-life tools of dairying in the region.

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