Six Easy Summer Walks Around Humboldt

It is a nice Humboldt summer evening. The fog is staying off shore and you’ve got an hour or two before twilight. You’ve already walked at the Arcata Marsh twice this week and another time across the Eureka Slough bridge and along the Bay Trail.

Here are some options that you might not have thought about for an evening walk:

• Friday through Monday, head to Ma-le’l Dunes North, a National Natural Landmark right in our back yard. From Samoa Boulevard (Hwy. 255), turn north on Young Lane (the north end of Manila) and right at the junction. You can drive all the way to the parking lot and quickly walk to the magnificent high dunes with their view east over the Arcata Bottoms and west over the ocean. The area remains open until one hour after sunset, so it’s a superb place to view the sunset. Note: Don’t bring your dog! There is an excellent map at the trailhead kiosk.

• Another vantage point from which to enjoy a sunset is Chah-GAH-Cho, a 9.5-acre park south of the former Mill Creek Cinema in McKinleyville (turn south on Betty Court from School Road). There are several short trails and a wonderful bench for looking out over the Mad River Bottoms.

• At the Potawot Health Village (1600 Weeot Way, off Janes Road in Arcata), walking paths — some wheelchair-accessible — wander along a riparian corridor through grasslands and pass the gardens. It is a peaceful refuge with places to sit and enjoy the sounds of the evening.

• Summers are a nice time to explore the Cal Poly Humboldt campus.

Most students are away, parking is more available and the campus offers places to walk, views and attractive plantings (in addition to the abundant stairs). It is a great opportunity to witness some of the many changes underway on campus.

• Volunteers have completed a very pleasant two-mile loop trail in the McKay Community Forest that is best accessed from the Harris Street entrance just west of Redwood Acres. Just 50 yards down the road that enters the forest, take a left on the High Line trail around the south side of Redwood Acres, returning along Ryan Slough to the Chute Trail. Make the short climb up the Chute Trail to the High Line and return to Harris. For a map see humboldtgov. org/mckayforest.

• At the west end of Table Bluff, the Bureau of Land Management maintains a short network of trails on its eight-acre Waluplh-Lighthouse Ranch unit. There are superb sunset views south over the Eel River Estuary and north to Humboldt Bay, plus a new picnic area and longer trails nearby at the Eel River Wildlife Area. Of course, our area offers many great walking options — the wonderfully refurbished access to Tepona Point south of Trinidad, the Mad River Bluffs area at the west end of McKinleyville’s Hiller Road, and the always-pleasant Riverwalk in Fortuna, to name a few. Most important is to get out and take advantage of this amazing place we call home.

Rees Hughes of Arcata is author of two volumes in the “Hiking Humboldt” series.