 Cotton-top Tamarin Sequoia Park Zoo has been around for 104 years making it the oldest zoo in California. It was never an ambitious zoo but always kept a small-scale operation afloat to educate and inspire the citizens of Eureka to have a reverence for wildlife. It's current stars are probably the Spider Monkeys and the Gibbons, who are both ham-bones that relish the attention. The Red Pandas are the newest addition to the family and I'm usually most eager to get to their display, however, I almost always linger by the adorable Cotton-top Tamarins, who knock inquisitively on the glass and stare into your eyes unabashedly.  The Cotton-top Tamarins remind me of little old men, perhaps because of the Albert Einstein fros, but what is unique about these New World monkeys is their naked faces which eerily resemble our own.  There is a male and female Rhea which guard a nest of infertile eggs. These flightless birds look like prehistoric raptors, especially when they run.  If you peer carefully into the trees as you pass, gray foxes may be found curled comfortably, twelve feet off the ground. Beneath is a lonely black bear named Rosemary with red eyes and tufts of gray fur. She sleeps the day away and yawns during waking hours.  The new habitat that has been under construction for a year is finally open with running waterfalls and flamingos galore. And finally the Red Pandas...  Here is one of the two, snoozing away an afternoon in the redwood forest.  The Red Panda's broad teeth and strong jaws allow for it to enjoy a hardy diet of bamboo. These guys are usually munching on some as you pass by.  Red pandas use their long, bushy tails to balance when they're in trees.  The backdrop for the Red Panda preserve is the 70-acre Sequoia Park.  Casually strolling from its hut into a patch of sunlight, the red panda stretches its legs.
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 For the past twenty-two years, artists have congregated in the early morning to create breath-taking sidewalk chalk art on the Arcata plaza as a fundraiser for Northcoast Children's Services. Each square costs $100-200 and the artist can create any image he or she wants, which usually caters to local business. The artists often dress for the occasion, some sporting the practical overalls or predictable tie-dye and others in full-out costume from bunny ears and antlers to fake mustaches. With the Farmer's Market happening simultaneously, Pastels on the Plaza is filled with the energy of Arcata.    Photo taken by Eric Estling   Photo taken by Cary Knudson  With fresh paintings encompassing the square, people relax on the patch of green in the center, listening to live music and hula-hooping their hearts out.  Some personal favorite pastel squares...      (I just included this one because of its "Humboldt Moment" candidacy)   And the winner (in my humble opinion)...   Photos of Buddy Guy are thanks to Google Buddy Guy performed tonight for a continuous two-hour set at HSU's Van Duzer Theater, where he managed to break every rule of the stage. Here was a 75-year-young man (as he liked to put it) singing every raunchy word and image conceivable from "she had one leg to the east, one leg to the west, and I was in the middle trying to do my best" to the next song, "I met a woman who was a tub a fat, laugh if you want brother but I like it like that," and even the awkwardly inappropriate chorus, "You just don't realize you got yourself a good deal, She's nineteen years old and she got ways like a baby child." Not to mention the infamous phrase that he coerced the entire crowd to yell at the top of their lungs, "While you were slippin out, someone else was slippin in!"  Photos of Buddy Guy are thanks to Google Buddy Guy played the guitar as if his soul depended on it. He even caressed the guitar backwards making it sing on his chest as he sang about making love to it. You can't get more pimp then that! He also whipped out his classic drum-stick playing on the guitar, which I had never seen before. As the grand finale, Buddy broke the biggest rule of all which was walking into the audience with his wireless electric guitar, catching the body guards off-guard behind stage. As they raced to keep up with him, he pushed his way through an uproarious crowd and all the way to the balcony where he pulled hot licks out of his Fender Stratocaster. A rule-breaker by nature, Buddy Guy impressed the Humboldt natives who pride themselves on making their own rules.
 Sequoia Park One of my obsessions is to photograph rays of light. The sun shines through the trees here in a special way, filtered through the high canopies it pierces the earth below like a searchlight.  As the daylight wanes, Trinidad Head's tunnel-passage always begets remarkable displays of light amidst the thorny brambles.  Ladybird Johnson Grove Columns of sunlit air contrast the shadowed regions in a magnificent display of crepuscular rays .  Patrick's Point; The Rim Trail Eric Estling, my adorable and patient lover, stands idly by while I play with the sunbeams on my camera screen, making him appear ethereal.  Drury Scenic Drive   Driving around here is not for the faint-hearted (ie: me). 4-wheel drive is crucial if you want to do any kind of exploring off the beaten path. My significant other is more of a risk-taker by nature, but he'll sometimes turn out to be wrong when judging the capabilities of our beloved automobiles (R.I.P. Moby Dick, our beloved Honda station wagon). However, one must take risks to get to the other side! It’s amazing what we’ll do to get a Humboldt Moment on camera… The Risk...  & Reward  After traversing through 3 of the above creeks, you enter Fern Canyon The Risk...  & Reward  Crashing waves off of South Spit The Risk...  & Reward  Easter in Kneeland and the first time my significant other
had seen snow falling from the sky  Coastal Redwood by Bailey Fletcher (an excerpt) To the ever-living this poem goes to the stoic ones that silence knows. Men of science scribe in pen Sequoia Semperviren though she has another name unspoken Virgin Timber. Blackened inside, hollowed-out by fire Growing eons ever-higher Jagged javelins torqued skyward Steeples for the morning choir.  The corkscrew tree is comprised of about fifteen trees (depending on who’s counting) that grew and twisted together over time. It is a marvel to behold and easy to climb into its sun-dappled center fortress. It’s right off of Drury Scenic Drive, the scenic alternate to 101.  This is The Chandelier Tree in Legget. It’s 315 feet high and about 2400 years old. Driving through this tree fulfilled my father’s childhood fantasy which occurred to him as a young boy in Florida, staring at the cover of his science textbook all year long which was reminiscent of this very image.  It is a common occurrence for redwoods to form a fairy ring (also called a family circle) around where their mother tree used to be. When the parent tree dies, a new generation of trees rise around it, forming a natural cathedral.  Coast redwoods create their own fog by breathing out ample amounts of moisture, usually transpiring as much as 500 gallons a day! That's as much water as an hour long shower.
 Surf 4 Peace was today. It's an annual fundraiser for nonprofit organizations.  Surfing is one of the pleasant happenings out in the water that I just sit back and admire from afar because I've seen Jaws too many times to pose as a seal where great white sharks roam, but that's just me! Call me a lily-livered landlubber.
 After two years of wanting to go but not being able to find the time (or afford the $5 entry fee which I later found out was negotiable), I finally woke up early on a Saturday to make the brief 4-hour window of accessibility into the gorgeous Humboldt Botanical Gardens, which is a burgeoning project full of possibility. It's quite a steep hike up the hill behind College of the Redwoods but there are plenty of benches along the way overlooking the bay, and shaded gardens that offer reprieve. The path is lined with kooky modern art projects like string tied to trees and buttons lining the ground, but if anything, they are good for a chuckle. The winner of these artsy fartsy projects is hands-down the phenomenal labyrinth at the end. It's a spiral mound that takes you on a silent, spiritual journey to the center, where traditionally, one meditates until fulfilling the labyrinth's name-sake, "All Happy Now".  The title of this project is appropriately, "Strings".  The Foxglove, also known as Dead Man's Thimbles, has purple pendent flowers that may look charming but it is one of the most poisonous plants known to man. If leaves, seeds, or flowers are consumed, it brings instant death to all living creatures.  From the top of the hill is a rewarding vista of the wildlife refuge and the bay.  Before I moved here I didn't give birds a second glance, unless they were being an annoyance. Now, two years later, I seek them out so I can observe their graceful habits from mating dances on the water to a flash of wings that lifts the bird off the ground into flight. It's so easy to become a bird-lover when your county is a birding hotspot with a variety of marshes, forests, and dunes that attract a huge diversity of birds. It's a common occurrence to see a red-tailed hawk perched on a street sign along the highway, herons grazing beside cattle in the pastures, red-breasted robins bouncing in the holly, ravens squawking a death knell, and scolds of stellar jays flying single-file across a clearing. This place is filled with so many wonders to arouse your undiscovered passions.  The ducks of Sequoia Park paddle into a puddle of sunlight.  Canadian Geese migrate here to have babies! It's priceless to watch these little boogers grow up and fly away, especially at the Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge.  I watched this fisherman gobble up fish after fish in Arcata Marsh, but what really struck me was the pattern of the rain rippling the water behind him and disturbing his shadow.  The common seagull is one of my favorite birds. It was a treat to watch these playful creatures tear apart the excess meat that the fishermen at Trinidad Pier threw over their boats.  Hiking to my favorite little nook, I hear an enchanting melody floating on the breeze. Low and behold, a mystical Asian woman is standing on Wedding Rock playing a wind instrument, looking out over the ocean.  It's not every day that a carnivorous Sunflower Star tries to consume your head.  What did I say about the hippie vans covered in peace signs? Well, they are everywhere.  Trilliums are the jewel of the redwood forest. It takes seventeen years until it finally matures and blooms in early spring. If picked, it takes 7 years to bloom again. If left alone their life span can reach seventy years.  Trilliums turn a dark pink as they age. Just lovely!  Talk about letting your imagination wander... | AuthorMy name is Bailey Fletcher and this is a record of my Humboldt Moments, which I began recording for a Journalism class in 2011. ArchivesMay 2012 |
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