CALIFORNIA'S REDWOOD COUNTRY

by Lee Foster

Though the California imagination can sometimes suffer from inflation, certain facts of nature here are indisputable. The redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) along the coast north from San Francisco are magnificent and the tallest trees on the earth (the tallest examples are three trees at 367 feet in Redwood National Park, 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 offers yet another wonder of nature--the oldest living thing on the earth. This distinction goes to the bristlecone pines, which can be seen high in the White Mountains east of Bishop.

In 1985 the park service opened a Visitor Center in Redwood National Park, at Orick, to provide visitors with a better understanding of the unique environment of the redwoods. UNESCO deemed Redwood National Park 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 in a long, thin band along the coast, from southwest Curry County in Oregon to south Monterey County, about 10 miles north of Hearst castle.

GETTING TO REDWOOD COUNTRY

The famous redwoods are 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, also a fine picnic and camping site. The first substantial groves are at Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

The 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, but the main redwoods are north of the juncture of the two roads.

REDWOOD COUNTRY HISTORY

Redwoods flourish both south and north from San Francisco, but the northern forests are most worthy of the capitalized name Redwood Country, which refers generically to the more than 400 miles between San Francisco and the Oregon coast. Actually, only about 3-5 percent of the primeval redwood forest remains today. About half of that remaining resource is on protected public lands. The rest has been logged off. The first reports of European contact with redwoods were from south of San Francisco when a priest-botanist in the expedition of Portola noted them in his diary of 1769. The tree was unknown to Europeans. The first American to observe redwoods was the intrepid explorer, Jedediah Smith, who saw the trees in 1822. He is now honored in Redwood Country with a river and a state redwood park named after him.

The native Californians were well aware of the redwoods and the redwood environment, but they did not consider it a hospitable habitat. Because the trees cast such shade, forage foods did not flourish beneath them as abundantly as in meadow or oak woodland terrain. The bark did not burn well and the trunks of the trees were too massive for the Native Americans to cut for firewood. However, Yuroks of the north coast split redwood planks for their shelters. They also hollowed canoes out of redwood logs.

Lumbering has been the main historical story associated with redwood country. The tree's wood is soft and easy to saw. Though not as strong as Douglas fir, it has an attractive red color that can be stabilized to remain red or will weather naturally to a pleasing grey. It is widely used in house siding, decks, and garden lumber. The biggest virtue of redwood is its ability to withstand weathering and termites without deteriorating. Prolonged moisture will cause most woods to rot, but redwood will endure. Redwood is of the most weather-resistant wood 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, the finest 19th century architectural legacy along the north coast, was built in 1884 at the corner of Second and M streets. Working mills, like that at Scotia, give you a glimpse of lumbering today.

The Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City, built in 1856, remains a repository for local history, especially regarding the fate of wayward ships whose captains were inattentive to the treacherous shorelines. The museum at the lighthouse is open only during irregular hours. 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, but failed to dislodge the structure, while devastating buildings in Crescent City.

REDWOOD COUNTRY MAIN ATTRACTIONS

Redwood Country's main trees begin along Highway 101 north of Leggett at the Richardson Grove, as mentioned.

A few miles further 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. Several turnoff areas invite you to pause and walk through the groves. Be sure to see all the groves on both sides of Highway 101 from Phillipsville to Redcrest. Founder's Grove is one of the better stops, with trees about 2,500 years old. The Founder's Tree is 346.1 feet high and was formerly thought to be the highest.

The drive along the Rockefeller Grove on Bull Creek Flats Road 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 ground that washed into the creek in 1955 and 1964, subsequently undermining some of the giant trees. Albee Camp, located in an abandoned apple orchard near the Rockefeller Grove, is a lovely site at which to camp or picnic. Silting of streams has also damaged the salmon-spawning habitat.

The Humboldt Redwoods Interpretive Center (707/946-2409) at the Burlington Campground is open May-October to dispense park information, maps, and books.

Driving north, both the towns of Ferndale and Eureka are worth exploring for their Victorians, shops, bed-and-breakfast-type inns, 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, such as Angelus Clockwork Music, 420 2nd Street, a store devoted to antique music scores and music making machines. An excursion boat called The Madaket gets you out on the water for a view of Humboldt Bay.

Ferndale, south from Eureka, specializes in carpenter-gothic Victorians, such as the Shaw house on Main Street. To the north, at Arcata, is the major seat of learning in the region, Humboldt State University, which fosters each year a zany kinetic sculpture race that has become a cult tourism attraction.

Logging continues to flourish, but in a reduced and controlled manner. One small side town to visit in redwood country is the lumber village of Scotia, built by the Pacific Lumber Company for its employees. Unfortunately, part of the town burned in a 1992 fire. The town has the largest redwood lumbermill in existence, which you can tour self-guided. At a park in the center of Scotia you can see a cross section of a redwood tree 1285 years old. The tree yielded 69,000 board feet of lumber. Children can scramble over an old logging locomotive on display at the park. Redwoods have a capacity to inspire wonder because of their height, beauty, and age. Even a tree 1285 years old may in fact be countless eons older. Most redwoods sprout clonally from the roots of their parent tree rather than from seeds. This same tree may have perpetuated itself in this fashion for thousands upon thousands of years.

At shops throughout Redwood Country you can often see burls for sale. Burls are masses of tree tissue that form around a bud. They are attractive ornamentally and, if put in water, will sprout as a miniature tree. The shoots will grow for years, living off the nourishment stored in the burl.

The futures of both logging and fishing, the economic mainstays of the region, are uncertain. Depletion of the old-growth supply, rather than a slacking demand, is a restricting factor in lumbering. However, redwood is the fastest-growing softwood species suitable for this climate. Young forests are more productive than old forests, from a board-feet point of view. Fishing for salmon has been banned in the waters off parts of this coast in some years because the annual run of salmon in the Klamath River was perilously low. If you happen to pass the mouth of the Klamath River when the salmon are spawning, you'll find a small army of RVs with salmon fishermen lined up reel to reel along the bank. Upstream, in the Hoopa Native American reservation, the residents are allowed to net the fish. The politics of salmon fishing and logging are equally intense.

Above Eureka the road swings close to the coast and passes through major state redwood parks, such as Prairie Creek, Del Norte, and Jedediah Smith, located in the foggy and rainy environment so conducive to optimum redwood growth. These parks were combined in 1968 to be Redwood National Park. Prairie Creek Park is noted for its Fern Canyon and herds of Roosevelt elk. Del Norte Park contains attractive showings of rhododendrons and azaleas. Jedediah Smith Park, with its wild Smith River, is appreciated for its trout, salmon, and steelhead fishing.

The interpretive center, the Redwood Information Center, is worth a stop at Orick. The center is perched right on the coast. Headquarters for Redwood National Park is in Crescent City. You can write in advance and ask him to send a brochure. Write the Superintendent, Redwood National Park, 1111 2nd Street, Crescent City, CA 95531, 707/464-6101.

One of the most enjoyable walks in Redwood National Park is a loop in the Lady Bird Johnson grove, which shows the range of vegetation, such as the 12 kinds of ferns, that grow in the redwood environment. Wander through the string of units that form the park to make your own private discoveries, such as the wandering, Roosevelt elk, mentioned above, at Prairie Creek. You may see as many as 30 wild elk at Prairie Creek, part of the 200-strong herd in the region.

There are two ways to get close to the tallest trees, which are in Tall Trees Grove. You can take a park service bus from the Redwood Information Center to within 1.3 miles of the grove and hike down (and back up) to see the trees. Alternatively, you can make a 15-mile and relatively level hike up and back Redwood Creek to see the trees.

Redwood Country is itself so spread out along Highway 101 that concentrating on the parks alone would be sufficient purpose for a trip. Side trips can be made on the scenic roads that parallel the main route, such as the Old Coastal Highway near the mouth of the Klamath River. The red elderberry, red alder, and scenic views of the ocean at marked turnouts make this a particularly choice backroad. The side road, hugging the coast north and south of Trinidad, offers exhilarating vistas, such as Houda Point.

There are roadside attractions that screaming kids in the back of the car will never let you get past, such as the Tour Thru Tree at Highway 169, Klamath Glen exit. Another attraction, Trees of Mystery, at first appears to be largely a tourist memento store, but be sure to see their End of the Trail Museum, with its elaborate Native American basketry and costume collection. Besides the Native American artifacts, such as a Crow elk-tooth-adorned dress, you'll see a distinguished collection of Edward Curtis photos.

However, there are also quieter wonders, such as Patrick's Point Park, a little-known state park with a re-created Yurok village, lovely campsites, and plenty of scrambling trails down to fine beaches, all in a relatively allergen-free environment. Patrick's Point boasts handsome stands of spruce and hemlock, plus some 350 varieties of mushrooms.

In the small towns you'll find good seafood eateries, with the freshest possible catch, such as Seascape, in Trinidad, close to the wharf, where crab fishermen unload their catch. In Eureka, try Lazio's, for seafood, or the Carter House, for the most elegant fine dining in town.

Lodging options for the region range from the stately Benbow Inn and Eureka Inn, near the south and north end of the highway, to the picturesque Gingerbread Mansion, a quintessential Victorian in Ferndale. Many styles of B&B can be found here, from the adults-only Old Town B&B in Eureka to the kids-welcome Lost Whale Inn, north of Trinidad.

Redwood Country could easily be combined with a trip along the Marin and Mendocino Coast or with trips concentrating on the wineries in the Sonoma and Napa regions.

NEARBY TRIPS FROM REDWOOD COUNTRY

The alternative route to Highway 101 is coast Highway 1, which takes you past the closest redwood grove to San Francisco, Muir Woods. (See the section Marin County). You can drive all the way up coast Highway 1 and then follow the road over to Highway 101 to see the main redwood groves, including the Avenue of the Giants. This scenic route takes much longer, however, so use Highway 1 only if you have an extra day or two for exploring.

***

REDWOOD COUNTRY: IF YOU GO

For more travel information on Redwood Country, write the Redwood Empire Association, 2801 Leavenworth, 2nd Floor, San Francisco 94133, 415/543-8334, 800/200-8334, web site http://www.redwoodempire.com. Send $3 for their excellent VISITOR GUIDE TO REDWOOD COUNTRY. This organization is the major spokesman for travel in the region.

The most active tourism information source in the region is the Eureka/Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau, 1034 Second Street, Eureka, CA 95501, 707/443-5097, 800/346-3482.

This article was written by Lee Foster of Foster Travel Publishing. Contact him at his website www.fostertravel.com or via email at lee@fostertravel.com. Copyright Lee Foster.

Lee Foster's most recent travel guidebooks are Northern California History Weekends (Globe Pequot), which won a Lowell Thomas Award, and Adventure Guide to Northern California (Hunter Publishing).

Lee Foster's new literary book is Travels in an American Imagination: The Spiritual Geography of Our Time.

File CAREDW