Twelve hours of driving, 190 miles and $38.00 of gas provided my husband and I all we needed for a Sunday Drive over a road we hadn’t traversed in 40 years. A drive to Petrolia on the Mattole River Road on a perfect winter’s day combined history, adventure and wild empty spaces.
In the dim dark ages of the past (think early 1970s) I was a bookmobile librarian learning to drive the vehicle by driving with an instructor over every route to every location the library serviced. One route came out of Ferndale, south to Petrolia and Honeydew, then east to Highway 101 and back to Eureka. Far more hours were spent driving to tiny rural locations than were spent passing out books. The arrival of the bookmobile once every two weeks was a community event. This treacherous terrain was a great practice for the later years I spent driving out of Willow Creek in the northeastern side of the county to places like Orleans, Weitchpec and Pecwan.
So I wanted to know — was the countryside as beautiful as I remembered from 50 years ago? The answer is yes. If you like a stunningly beautiful environment empty of most people this is the place to take a drive — but give yourself LOTS of time, or plan on spending the night in some place like Fortuna. Believe me — 12 hours driving time is excessive for a day’s drive.
To start this adventure we drove up Highway 101 and started west at Humboldt Redwoods State Park’s northern boundary exiting to drive through the Rockefeller Forest along the Mattole Road. Twisting and turning through big trees and narrow roads you pass Bull Creek, crest over Panther Gap at 2742’ and glide down into the river valley and Honeydew.
Yes, I remembered southern Humboldt was famous for marijuana growing but I was astounded by the number of huge commercial hoop house grows, and the fact most seemed abandoned. Long gone are the days before legalization when a pound of weed was worth $2000. Happily, surviving thriving homesteads with cattle and sheep operations feature tidy houses and barns now 150 years old. We stopped to picnic at A.W.Way County Park and found the campground full of fisherman out for salmon.
Just before Petrolia is a Lighthouse Road going out to the mouth of the Mattole. The Mattole Lumber Company 110 years ago had a two mile railroad going out to a shipping point we hoped to see, but it was on the far side of the river. The beachfront campground had “Bear Warning”: signs all over it. The old Punta Gorda Lighthouse south on the coast there is long gone.
The road continues northwest to Petrolia where the first commercial oil well in the state was drilled in the 1860s. While hopes were high production was insufficient to continue and people settled on ranching and fruit growing. The Petrolia Store (cash only) has the post office, a tiny food service, local arts and crafts, home baked goodies, a lending library and a community bulletin board. And yes, the county library bookmobile still comes to Petrolia.
Continuing west you reach a hill overlooking miles of empty beach and Cape Mendocino and Sugarloaf Rock to the north. The beach is private property and browsed by cows, horses and elk. There is no “official” beach access but a few cars were parked as people were checking out the tide pools on a low tide. Just south of the Cape is “Ocean House” which I remembered from long ago and I’d bet that ranch has been there 100 years. Talk about a jaw dropping beautiful place to live if you live being in the middle of nowhere.
The road leaves the coast at Capetown and starts zig zagging up Bear River Ridge towards Ferndale. Herds of elk browsed beside the road ands cattle were wandering all over the road. In places there were some truly gigantic moss covered old Hemlock trees. From Ferndale we took Grizzly Bluff Road through the Eel River valley to Rio Dell and Highway 101 to start the long drive home. Dairy farmers were prosperous here and built large well crafted barns and homes that have lasted more than a century.
Readers who follow my writings know I love the names put on places. We traveled with a 60 year old Metsker map that labeled every wide spot on the road. Landforms and creeks were named for wildlife including buzzard, coon, eagle, moose, panther and rattlesnake. Horse names were on a hilltop, and on Horse Collar Creek and Saddle Mountain. There wasn’t just bear — it was Bear Trap Ridge and Grizzly Creek. Deer names were in Little Buck and Fawn creeks.
The devil got his name on stuff including the Devil’s Elbow (in a river) and Devil’s Gate (on a stream). The politically incorrect word Nig**r was applied to a Head (a hilltop) and a Heaven (an opening). Color words appeared in Coffee Creek, Red Rock and Green Pond. Named places I might not want to visit included Sweat Creek and Fly-Blow Gulch.
I strongly recommend getting out on the road and off on an adventure whenever possible.
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