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Highway 101 Through the Redwoods

Humboldt's Gorgeous Drive On The Redwood Highway is better than ever.

Redwoods Rule Along the Avenue of the Giants

Highway 101 winds for hundreds of miles up the West Coast, but the best stretch is through the redwood forests of Humboldt County. This wonder trip headed north through Southern Humboldt traces the flow of the Eel River. On one side you see giant Redwood trees, and on the other is the “Avenue of the Giants”, the old US Highway 101, now a scenic alternative. A stand of ancient Redwood trees east of the river are part of Blair Grove, marking the southern boundary of Humboldt Redwoods State Park. This 52,000-acre park includes more than 17,000 acres of giant redwood trees and old-growth redwood forest. An epic flood submerged both Highway 101 and The Avenue of the Giants under the Eel River in December of 1964. A sign posted above the highway reveals the high-water mark. The towns of Myers Flat and Miranda were both destroyed in the flood of ’64.

A Young Road Through An Old Forest

It wasn’t until 1920 that a Humboldt County brochure appeared documenting the “recently completed highway south to San Francisco and a road being considered going north toward Oregon.” Highway 101 is still just a child of a highway though it travels through the world’s oldest Redwood trees.

Harper Makes the First Road Trip on Highway 101 Through the Redwoods

As Highway 101 north to Humboldt County was being completed, Harvey G. Harper of Eureka was born. Harper tells of his father, Harvey M. Harper, the first man to drive a car through the redwoods. The senior Harper made the trip in the winter of 1912 from San Francisco to Eureka. At times he literally carved out the road with a shovel so his Model T Ford could pass over the rutted, muddy trail, around giant redwoods, and up the course that served as Highway 101 at the time.

Picnics in the Redwoods when Automobiles were outlawed on Highway 101

Harvey G. Harper remembers, as a child, bouncing down Highway 101 to picnics in the Redwoods near Benbow. His father steered the family vehicle down the dirt and gravel roadway south from Eureka. The Family, the picnic gear and the car would all be covered in dust when they arrived for lunch. “My mother said she could never live in southern Humboldt - it was too dusty!” said Harper. “Further south, Mendocino County even had a law against automobiles for awhile, when noisy engines spooked horses. Also, my father sold tractors and road equipment to the highway 101 crews that improved the road over the years. It was tough country, and they went through a lot of equipment to build the road back then.”

Original and historic stretches of the original Highway 101 can still be found

“The Alignment” – that’s a phrase Harper uses for both the huge project of improving Highway 101 and also for historic sections of the route, like the College of the Redwoods access road, which once served as the main highway. Another old section is the mountain road, now abandoned, between Ukiah and Willits, Harper said, “You could get stuck behind a truck for what seemed like forever.” In those days the drive from San Francisco to Eureka drive was a twelve-hour ordeal of driving slowly through the Redwood forests.

Highway 101 Now takes Half as Long to Drive from San Francisco to Eureka

The drive from the Golden Gate to Eureka’s Humboldt Bay is now less than six hours if you’re in a hurry, but the best way to take it is slowly. It’s one of the world’s most scenic highways, so it’s best to take your time and enjoy the scenic Eel River and the Redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants. In solitude of an ancient Redwood forest grove. You’ll whisper a prayer of thanks for rivers, redwoods and the time to enjoy them.

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