North Country Fair

Perhaps as good a place as any to witness American folk religion in action is the Farewell-to Summer, Fall-Equinox North Country Fair in Eureka, California. It's a intergenerational affair. Old Age hippie elders are there celebrating with their New Age progeny. NewAge-ism believes in a non-dual "bodysoul," a credo that distinguishes it from almost all other religions in American culture. Accordingly, NewAge shamans have devised therapies that treat both simultaneously.

Crescent City Harbor

Crescent City Harbor is a large park entirely in concrete, except for a mermaid in wood who peers intently at all visitors, looking like an angry sea. Sunday is a good time to come, for not many people are around and you can watch fishers bleed fish, cut fish, sell filets to waiting humans and toss innards to creatures in waiting. Over the railing sailed a chunk of tuna. Sea lion went for it, only to be attached by gull. Pelican just waited, flapping its long beak, while loon swam by offshore, not laughing. Opposite Mermaid was Del Norte Sheriff's Department of Boat and Safety, United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, and Commercial Fishermen's Wives Association. Close by was the boat "Fantastic," out of the water, up on boards, and being re-painted.

Trees of Mystery

The only way to find out the mystery at the Trees of Mystery on Highway 101 way up in northwestern California is to receive the "mark." There is nothing to it. No initiation or the like. Just pay $14. At the beginning, where it says, "pay as you leave," people habitually pause, trying to find out whether it will be worth it. Past the gate, in the inner sanctum, a sonorous voice says, over and over, "Life in one tree is life in all trees." And more, "We will continue even deeper into the mysteries ..." The trail goes clockwise. In the middle is the Cathedral Tree, built by and for the resident deity, Mother Nature. Near the end Paul Bunyan, her consort, gathers his friends together to bring you good tidings." At the very end is a sign, "I love you."

Fort Humboldt State Historic Park

Fort Humboldt State Historic Park in Eureka sits on a bluff overlooking Bayshore Mall, making it easy to plan a forthcoming attack on Bed Bath and Beyond. Picnic tables are scattered about on the lawn where fiddlers play for birthday parties. Besides seeing where U.S. Grant was quartered in 1854, the main attraction is the logging museum, where steam engines take passengers in a V-line, slowly forward for fifty yards on one track and backward on the other. John Bauer, of the Eddie Bauer family, operates a Dolbeer Steam Donkey, invented in 1881 by Eureka citizen John Dolbeer. Maintaining the Steam Donkey is his hobby. His real work is taking a World Religions class at College of the Redwoods, as he prepares for life beyond Eureka as a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church. Speaking of religion, the hellish orange heat he fuels in the belly of the donkey is a perfect metaphorical match for the heavenly black holes in the galactic trunks of the North Coast's fallen redwoods.

Immortal Tree

The Immortal Tree on the Avenue of the Giants is an ancient resort. If you cannot get in the Eternal Tree House, Immortal Tree is your next best bet.

The Eternal Tree House

The Eternal Tree is in Redcrest at 26510 Avenue of the Giants. The Eternal Tree House is not up in the sky. It is in the basement of an old dead redwood, a replacement for its roots. Around the rim of the house new trees have grown from the old, so "eternal" of the title makes some sense. Entrance is free, and the door is always open. Here and there are carved old male figures to give some idea what eternity might be like. Three old men sat outside the cafe, drinking coffee, and smoking. Coach America drove up, and a busload of Swedes piled out, seeking immortality American style.

The Legend of Bigfoot

The Legend of Bigfoot in Garberville, California, is on the fringe of Bigfoot Country, the heart of which is Happy Camp to the northeast, up near Oregon. A carving of Bigfoot stands here with almost a smirk on his face, saying, here is a wooden replica of me, but you'll never catch the true me. Why I exist is a far more intriguing mystery than why these redwoods are tall. If you like to avoid such perplexing conundrums, check out Big Bear over there, who has a winsome and uncomplicated smile. And, by the way, this is a convenient place to stop for restrooms in the redwoods.

Drive Thru Tree

The Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree resides in Leggett, California, at the junction of Highways 1 and 101. The two major attractions are the very large painting on the entrance road that makes the tree actually look sort of like a chandelier and the fallen tree off to the side with a big black hole in it. Maybe a third is the congregation of back-seat drivers who hop out and take pictures of driver and car passing through. None got down on their knees, even though an on-site poem directed them to do so.

Confusion Hill

Campbell Bros. Confusion Hill is the true tourist start of California's Redwood Country, that is, if you are headed north. They will not level with you about what's confusing you. Fellow travelers on the Mystery Train may be of some help, but that is doubtful. The problem is to differentiate between what looks confusing but isn't and what really is genuinely mysteriously confusing. To help you sort it out the Campbell Bros. have provided a Shoe House, which will make you think confusion is not so big after all, and a Gravity House, which is sure to make you think wherever confusion is it is downhill from there. The place is very nicely decorated with American flags, carved bears, totem poles, manikin loggers, and pots of flowers. (Almost everyone on California's North Coast has pots of something.) After you have given up, Doug's Dog House is a good place to get some ice cream, although pets are not let in on the inner sanctum.

Peg House

The Peg House is not far north of Leggett on Highway 101. Along with Homemade Cookies they offer seeds to grow your own pot, ashtrays to douse your flame, and necklaces to show off your use. A woman behind the counter moved slow and dreamily. It took her two minutes to ring up a $1.59 purchase and two more to change a $5 bill. Finally, her partner behind the counter asked if she wanted her to take over. Offer accepted. Outside was an out-of-service police car, more or less permanently parked. Inside was the male cousin of the cafe clerk.

Pot Garden

The Pot Garden in Mendocino is a garden of some potted and some not potted plants. The Garden is self-perpetuating, like the Eternal Tree House further up the road in redwood country. Hands come out of the pots, legs stick out of the ground upside down, and an alien stares out of a nearby window. The Pot Garden is like the Garden of Eden in one respect. Normal humans can't get into it, at least not without special permission from Alan the owner.

Point Arena

Point Arena is a whole town with a coordinated sense of humor. New Pine Creek is too. The photographs are evidence.

Sea Ranch Chapel

The nondenominational Sea Ranch Chapel is a part of Sea Ranch, an landscape friendly subdivision on California's North Coast below Gualala. It sits like a jaunty cap on top of a hill. It blooms like a flower in the meadow. It opens like time-lapse petals spreading. It parts like a seed cracking. "No, no, no, dispense with all those vegetative similes. It's a rooster." "On the contrary, I think we're in Baba Yaga Land."

Pampas Grass

One website will give you ten reasons to love pampas grass. It is beautiful; it is tough; it is cheap. That's three of them. Another website is entitled, "Beware of Pampas Grass." It grows tall, and keeps growing, it will take over, and has very sharp-edged leaves. From its home in Argentina it is invading the coast of California. Wildlands maintenance crews are out on the beautiful cliffs of Highway 1, the ones with magnificent views of the ocean, spraying "Roundup" on all they can reach. "Are you all right?" "Yes, that was quite a hike." "How far down did you go?" "See where that pampas grass is blowing in the wind, deep in the canyon, on the edge of the abyss." The California Wildlands Grassroots Fund was established to support the heroic efforts of activists to preserve California's wildlands."

Bird Drop Half Dome

On California's Highway 1 south of Fort Ross is a human-made Half Dome. It was built to stabilize the roadbed. It has the curve. It has the cracks. And it has two features nature's Half Dome in Yosemite does not have: a blue fence (quite picturesque) and bird droppings (quite artistically placed).

Hard Core Cafe

The Hard Core Cafe is on California Highway 116, near Sebastopol. The two owners staff the counter and provide diverse places to sit and drink their lattes: umbrella shaded chairs along the highway, a play room under awnings for the kids and the kid in you (here is where your dreams may come true) a round table with brochures for contemplating affairs of self-help health, and a picnic table beneath a pink ribbon of gauze. An inner space contains an variegated altar to coffee and chocolate and trips. (Here is where your dreams can come true.
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