CAP’N ZACH’S
CRAB HOUSE
Fresh from our Boat to You
DUNGENESS CRAB
Family owned and Operated since 1996
OPEN THURS.- SUN.
(market and weather permitting) 11am -6pm • Call 839-9059 Corner of Central & Reasor, McKinleyville
Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park
Ping!Pongpongpongpongpongpong. The bird called from somewhere high. Then came the uh-uh-uh-uh-uh of a woodpecker knocking on a snag. A car pulled into a moss-covered space in the parking lot next to the only other car there. Its middle-aged occupants got out, stretched, locked the doors and wandered up the trail with their dogs, the skunky eau d’Humboldt wafting off their clothing. They walked past the quaint, cabin-like visitor center. It was shuttered for the day, as was the fee booth at the entrance, and there was no ranger in sight. But a self-pay notice on one wall of the visitor center encouraged visitors to grab a small envelope from the box nearby, put their camping or day-use fee in, and deposit it in the slot. The campground host’s RV space likewise was empty, save for a forlorn white plastic chair. Only one of the 32 campsites had an occupant in it, but then it was April, not the height of camping season. Over where the ranger, on summer nights, would deliver campfire talks, catastrophe had recently struck — a redwood, felled by wind, had landed on the amphitheater and busted several benches. Somebody had been sawing the tree into firewood and stacking it neatly to the side. Tall trees, some with blooming trillium at their feet, filtered the cloud-thinned sunlight. The Van Duzen was a cold roar of muddy jade brightened by white riffles, and Grizzly Creek chattered loudly in from the side, full and willow-tugging swift. In some ways, the dappled emptiness seemed just another pre-busy-season Saturday in early April, the quiet prelude before the regulars — the Aubuchons and other families continued on next page
Hunan, Szechuan, Peking, Cantonese & Asian Cooking Beer & Wine Lunch & Dinner 7 Days a Week 4th & D Streets • Eureka 269-2618
Bayfront Restaurant One F Street, Eureka, CA 443-7489 Open Daily 11-9:30pm | BayfrontRestaurant.net
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Virginia Woolf
835 J Street, Arcata • 822-WISH Open For Dinner @ 5:30 pm Tues-Sun
GRIZZLY CREEK STATE PARK
PHOTO BY KEN MALCOMSON
northcoastjournal.com • NORTH COAST JOURNAL • THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012
13