old-growth redwood forest

I’ve been intrigued by the Northern California area of Humboldt County ever since the fourth grade. That’s when my teacher told us the story of the Gold Rush town of Eureka: In the 1850s, when prospectors struck gold, they would yell “Eureka!” which is Greek for “I have found it!” What a funny word, I thought.

My curiosity about the area later grew when I learned about its logging renaissance — vast swaths of old-growth redwood forests were felled to make ships and build railroads, both of which were needed to transport this valuable commodity to the rest of the country and beyond. It wasn’t until 1918 with the formation of the Save the Redwoods League that preservation efforts began to try to halt the rapid depletion of the old-growth forests, which, by that point, had dwindled down to between 5% to 10%. From those efforts, Humboldt Redwoods State Park was established in 1921, followed by the formation of Redwoods National Park in 1968. Today the four parks that make up Redwood National and State Parks cover about 139,000 acres of land and protect nearly half of the world’s remaining old-growth redwood forests.

And it was the lure of walking beneath these giants that I, decades past that fourth-grade history lesson, finally decided to make my pilgrimage.

It took this long because, dear reader, Redwood National and State Parks are not easy to get to from L.A.

By car, without accounting for traffic and breaks, it would be at least a 12-hour journey along the 101, through San Francisco, past wine country and bypassing Mendocino before you reach Humboldt County, where the southern end of the parks begin. Realistically, it would take a few days and a couple of overnight stays along the way to get there, which is fine if you’re in it for the road trip; but if you’re like me and only have the weekend, this leaves one option: flying into California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport, a.k.a. Arcata-Eureka Airport (ACV), the only airport that services the area. United has direct flights there from LAX. But Burbank Airport has Breeze Airways offering direct flights three times a week with prices as low as $80 roundtrip.

When I landed at Arcata-Eureka Airport, it felt smaller than some municipal airfields — and just as quiet. That calm set the tone for the rest of the weekend. I walked in peaceful serenity between trees so tall and ancient they recalibrated my sense of time. I discovered that life in Humboldt County, and neighboring Del Norte County near the Oregon border, moves at that same unhurried pace. The fog retreats slowly in the morning. Night arrives gently, carried in on the mist.

And I learned that Humboldt County — including the cities of Eureka, Arcata and Ferdale — is full of treasures beyond its abundance of the Earth’s tallest trees. Whether I was eating a greasy cheeseburger at a family-run diner that becomes the social center of town after 9 p.m. or slurping oysters at a bar that harvested them from its own farm just offshore, it became clear that this place is shaped by discovery, exploitation and preservation. What follows are hikes, sights and bites that should get you started for a weekend full of your own “Eureka!” moments.