Beautiful Areas, But Best to Just Keep Going
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4/24/2021
I lived in a suburb just north of Eureka for three years.
It has a small-town feel, where everybody seems to know everybody. There is zero traffic, but that's because it is so isolated...You have to drive at least three hours to get to civilization (through the winding narrow mountain roads to Redding or south to Santa Rosa). There is beautiful scenery. You can go to the beach and not see one other person there the entire time. But that's because it is too cold to go to the beach most of the time, the water is freezing, the current is too dangerous to even attempt to go in the water, and people are killed every year by "sleeper waves." Never heard of such a thing? Me either, until I lived there; and I grew up at the beach down south. You learn to NEVER turn your back on the waves there. The Redwoods are beautiful, nourished by all the rain they get. When it's not raining, it's gloomy (so much so there is a pervasive vitamin D deficiency among the residents). There are a handful of pretty neighborhoods but the majority of the area is in poverty, mentally ill, on drugs/alcohol and/or selling it. Everyone associates Humboldt County with Marijuana but the biggest issue is Meth. The courthouse/jail is the tallest, central building in Eureka. People purposefully move there to "get off the grid," and/or take advantage of the cannabis culture/cultivation (everyone else is just stuck). Law enforcement and emergency responders generally do not respond to calls in the more rural areas. (Look up Murder Mountain.) Child Protective Services is so swamped with cases they don't even bother investigating things that would receive immediate attention elsewhere. It's a beautiful place to visit but not to live, unless you're looking for what they have. (On your visit, just make sure not to wander on to the Reservations because you will not be welcomed, and definitely don't wander off the main roads during harvest season or you might be met by men with machine guns, protecting the "crops.")
Penny | San Diego, CA