Turning away from the coast

It seemed neither of us had yet adjusted to the time difference as well as I had thought yesterday, as we were both awake early again. Although we could have got a complementary ‘breakfast to go’ from the Victorian Inn from 8.00 AM we decided instead to go to the rather quirky Mind's Eye coffee shop on Main Street which had opened at 6.30 AM. We enjoyed good coffee and muffins and liked the vibe of the place which is attached to a boat building school.

Going out for breakfast also gave us the opportunity to take a few more photos around the town.

Fort Humboldt

We checked out and drove the few miles north to Eureka, we stopped on the city’s outskirts to visit Fort Humboldt State Park. This was the site of an historic military fort, overlooking Humboldt Bay, which was established here in 1853. It is most famous for being for a short period home to a young Captain Ulysses S. Grant.

Only one of the original buildings remains intact, the hospital, but a few others have been reconstructed, most notably the Surgeon’s Quarters. I was disappointed not to be able to go inside this (I later read that it is not currently open to the public but there are plans to establish it as a period house museum in due course). However, we enjoyed following the short trail around the fort. This gives a very honest account of the impact of colonialisation in what were (and still are) the ancestral lands of the native Wiyot people. The state park website explains:

Sharing only the military piece of the Fort Humboldt history would not come close to capturing all that this place, and this historical period represents. This would lead to an unbalanced perspective of Fort Humboldt’s role in this area’s development. The inclusion of California Native Americans’ lived experiences in this story acknowledges how this historic site represents a painful reminder of that history to their descendants. By sharing the complete story of Fort Humboldt, it is our hope that this will provide healing support to the ongoing cultural revitalization being undertaken by many of the area’s Indigenous people and their communities.

The trail also led us past an open-air display of historic 19th-mid 20th century logging equipment, showing how this evolved from early steam donkeys to more powerful locomotives which enabled the transport of increasingly large loads of timber and precipitated the deforestation of significant areas of land in this region.

Downtown Eureka

After visiting Fort Humboldt we followed signs to the Old Town which my guidebook indicated would be a good bet for a coffee stop. What the book didn’t mention however was that Eureka’s Old Town is a fantastic place to find street art, with some impressive large murals. We were distracted in our search for coffee by my desire to find and photograph some of the best, so wandered around several streets in the vicinity of where we had parked.

We also had a stroll along Eureka’s waterfront. There were lovely views of a marina and offshore islands, and an interesting display of banners on the lampposts honouring locals who had served in the military and coastguard services.

And the guidebook was right about the coffee! There are several independent coffee shops here and we loved the one we chose, Old Town Coffee and Chocolates, just a block from the waterfront. In addition to decent coffee, we enjoyed the quirky décor here.

Weaverville

We then had a longish drive on a very scenic road across the coastal range, although we were a little frustrated by the frequency of road works on this stretch of our journey. But we arrived in Weaverville in time for lunch as we’d hoped to do. We wanted to have a bigger meal than usual as we knew we wouldn’t be able to get an evening meal at our accommodation. The tuna melt wraps at Mama Llama's Eatery fitted the bill perfectly!

Once we’d eaten we set off to explore this small, historic town. It was once home to approximately 2,000 Chinese gold miners and had its own Chinatown. Many of the town’s buildings from that era remain, including California’s oldest active Chinese temple.

It was a very hot afternoon, so we were glad to pop into several of the appealing galleries and shops, in one of which I treated myself to a small fabric bag sewn by a local woman. But the small museum I’d hoped to visit proved to be closed on Mondays. And more disappointingly, so was the temple, known as the Temple among the Trees Beneath the Clouds. According to Wikipedia, this houses Chinese artifacts from the 19th century, and is Weaverville’s oldest building, built in 1852. But the outside was unprepossessing, and the door was firmly closed.

Despite that we found plenty to see and photograph on our walk. There was a great street art mural, plenty of lovely old Victorian-era buildings and a small group of deer on a front lawn. The light was very harsh for photography, but I did my best to capture the charm of this small town.

When we stuck our heads into the lobby of the theatre a friendly woman asked if we would like to sit in on part of the performance, which was just restarting after an intermission. But we knew we wouldn’t want to stay long and might disturb people, so we declined the kind offer.

In addition to the Chinese influence, the town is known for the ornate exterior spiral staircases on some of the buildings on Main Street. These were an ingenious way to evade taxes that were levied on interior staircases in the nineteenth century. I was reminded of the way in which British homeowners blocked up windows to evade window tax.

We finished our walk in Up North Mercantile, a treasure trove of a shop with gifts, foodstuffs, bric-a-brac and, importantly, great ice cream. The perfect way to cool off after our walk.

Indian Creek

It was only a few miles from Weaverville to our accommodation near Douglas City, Indian Creek Lodge. This may be a fairly simple property but we had a really friendly welcome and liked our room. We walked down to see the river and relax on a swing seat there, but the afternoon was very hot so we were glad after a while to retreat to our air conditioned room.

The restaurant here is closed on a Monday, but knowing that in advance meant that we had eaten our main meal in Weaverville. So this evening we made do with a ‘snack’ of beer and crisps in our room while watching some TV.