Category: Foodie

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Humboldt County CA – Ferndale & The Lost Coast

Welcome to SoHum

Humboldt County has more coastline than any other County in California. Most of the County’s population is concentrated near Humboldt Bay in the cities of Eureka, Arcata and Fortuna, leaving the mountainous and forested areas largely vacant of humans. In my grandfather’s day, this meant the land along the coastal King Range was a good place for hunting, and he referred to the area as “down around Petrolia”. Today, this remote section is the home to Humboldts most reclusive characters, and the locals refer to it as SoHum (Southern Humboldt).

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Humboldt Bay, California

Informational sign posted at the parking lot at the end of the South Jetty

Humboldt Bay is big – 16,000 acres. The bay’s port at Eureka is the only protected deep water harbor between San Francisco and Seattle, so Humboldt Bay is a pretty important place from both an economic and ecology perspective. If you visit Humboldt Bay today, you’ll find three distinct  zones: South, North and Central.

The North and South consist of long barrier sand spits barely connected to the mainland. The Central section is the protected harbor, divided between mudflats teeming with wildlife and the City of Eureka, Humboldt County seat. Most of the central bay is private property. It’s the two spits that are the most accessible to the public as recreation areas, thanks to access roads the Corps of Engineers put it when they built a jetty at the end of each spit in 1890. The jetties were needed to stabilize the harbor entrance, which until then involved a risky transit over ever-changing sandbars.

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Oregon Coast – Depoe Bay to Florence

You’d be hard pressed to find a prettier coastline than Oregon’s. A big part of this is the 1967 law that gives ownership of all beach land to the State. As a result, the Oregon coast has not been carved up by condos and hotels, leaving miles of pristine natural vistas and a continuous chain of parks and recreation areas for the public. A drive down US 101 takes a lot longer than you expect, purely because you will find yourself pulling over every few miles to enjoy another spectacular view.

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