Cruising California’s Redwood Coast
Five hours north of San Francisco on Hwy 101, you reach Humboldt County, otherwise known as California’s Redwood Coast. While more than 4 million people visit Yosemite National Park each year, only 600,000 make it to Redwood National Park annually to see the world’s tallest tree, a 379-foot coastal redwood. Indeed, this is the undiscovered Californian coast, where you can drive through the largest intact old-growth redwood forest, Avenue of the Giants, with relatively little traffic, hike almost 80 miles of wilderness shoreline on the Lost Coast, stroll the perfectly preserved Victorian village of Ferndale, and walk through the luxuriant moss-covered walls of Fern Canyon. Once known only for its cash crop, marijuana, Humboldt County is now known for its vineyards and claims to have the greatest number of artists per capita in all of California, the reason why author John Villani picked Eureka number one in his book, “The 100 Best Art Towns in America.” This region of the country has been on my wish list for quite some time, so I’m excited to be reporting live this week from Humboldt County. Please follow my every move on this blog and from my tweets @ActiveTravels.