Arcata, California and surrounding areas
Arcata We made Arcata our home base for a larger exploration of the area, heading north during the days for redwood trees and water.
Arcata is home to Cal State Humboldt, a polytechnic in the CSU system with around 10K students. Note that hotel rooms may fill quickly if you are attempting to visit at the start or end of a school year.
Downtown Arcata has a prominent main square of park, surrounded by shops and restaurants. This is still a small town place; we noted that one of the four sides of the main square boasted 3 bars. The rest are thrift stores, a few home goods stores with gifts and thoughtful items, and a good bakery with breakfast.
Arcata also has the longest continually running movie theater in the country. The Minor serves snacks and dinner at your seat, and all seats are cushy new lounge versions with tables in front of them. Reservations can be made in advance on their website.
There is a long walking path near the water in Arcata, very close to the main shopping areas, and we saw a fox and loads of ripe blackberries within the Bird Sanctuary. A complete trail map is HERE. We also visited Cypress Grove cheese company (1330 Q Street, Arcata, CA 95521) . Unfortunately, they are not set up for shopping and samples, but they gave us a goody bag with cheese, stickers, and other branded Cypress Grove items.
We enjoyed dinner at The Local Cider Bar which had a very impressive list of ciders, plus a fun selection of non-alcoholic sodas. The Bar hosts different food restaurants, and we were there on an evening with Tasty Thai-ger, which served very authentic Thai food--Kha Soi just like we had in Thailand.
Trinidad
This was an amazing day trip from Arcata, boasting hikes with beautiful trees and simultaneous ocean views, plus a local gem for smoked fish.
Right in town is Trinidad State Park. There's a large parking lot with the ocean on one side and a hiking trail on the other. The walking path is mostly level, with gentle upslopes, and would be an excellent choice for less athletic folks or young children. We recommend taking the loop trail to the left, as the instructions are slightly clearer. At many points, this path has port on one side and ocean views on the other. This is interspersed with trail points where the branches of the trees have formed a covering, and there are many moments where one expects to see foxes or fairies. There are many benches along the path, most of which have stunning views.
Afterwards, we stopped at Katy's Smoke House, which turned out to be a local famous gem. They are not cheap. We got one can of smoked sturgeon and ate it outside. We wanted to see how good it was, so we could determine how much to buy for ourselves and as gifts.
We went back in and bought 5 cans of smoked sturgeon, 2 of smoked salmon, 1 smoked tuna, and 1 regular tuna. They also ship nationwide.
The sturgeon is special and not always available. The local Yurok Indian tribe are permitted to catch sturgeon, a protected fish, and if they have extra they sell to Katy's. So there are years where there is no sturgeon available at all.
The fish does not look like your supermarket tuna, or even your Fishwife fancy tins. There are nice big chunks in the can. The smokey flavor is pleasant and the juices in the can are just from the fish--nothing else added.
In this general area of Northern California, there are both a State and National Redwood State Parks. Trinidad has several options for visiting the National version, including Ladybird Johnson Grove. From the parking lot, one crosses a bridge and emerges in a mostly flat and level walking path. The trees here are simply awesome. This is an old growth forest where one can see redwoods in every state--young, very old, dead, burned.
The path is so level that it perhaps could count as wheelchair accessible, except for one moment halfway where the path narrows considerably as it passes between 2 trees, and it is unpaved so in wet weather it may be less passable.
There are many other fantastic nature hikes in the area. Several are featured HERE and a full list of Redwood National and State Parks is HERE.
Avenue of the Redwoods (above) is a lovely drive parallel to the freeway. You can take it a short way, or a long way. You can stop and camp or fish, or simply drive on through. Any way you do it, it is majestic.
Ferndale
This town is 10-15 minutes off of Highway 101, and we are glad we made the stop. They are known for their Victorian downtown. Indeed, it's 3 full blocks of beautifully restored Victorian shops, with more private Victorian homes on adjacent streets. That alone, and the cute public bathroom, would be worth the detour. We were there on a Monday, and not all shops were open, but we enjoyed several gift shops and home goods stores, one of which has a huge selection of candy, some odd antiques, and lots of hats. Others prominently feature cheese and cheese related gifts. We also visited the Ferndale Meat Company and took home bacon and sausages, both of which we can recommend. The prices here are low compared to the city.
The Humboldt County Fair takes place in Ferndale in early-mid August. We had just missed it on our visit.
Boonville
We used this as a stopping point, but you might like to make it a destination. Anderson Valley Brewing Company is here and they host events throughout the year. We happened to arrive at the end of their annual disc golf tournament, which is apparently very large and all the attendees camp on the grounds for the weekend. They have a tasting room and food.
Across the street from Anderson Brewing is a cheese factory PennyRoyal Farm. We really enjoyed their aged goats milk cheeses. They have tastings and a small shop, plus guided tours in the morning. (reserve in advance) Some of the older goats are easily accessible and you can feed them. Dogs are ok on the patio only, not inside the store.
Laytonville
If you are driving south from Humboldt County, you may need to stop in Laytonville to refuel your body or car. We recommend 101 BBQ. We found the prices very reasonable; usually these days we are shocked by the price of BBQ. The chicken and the brisket were both excellent, and the CHEESECAKE was amazing. They had friendly, quick service. Across the street is Pour Girls for coffee. We found their drinks too much on the sweet side, but it is a convenient stop with many options.
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