I could honestly talk about it all day, LOL!!
We stayed in Eureka at the Bayshore Inn Best Western, which I don't necessarily recommend, but it's not awful, we just stayed in pretty fancy hotels in SF so it felt a little sketchy! It wasn't really that bad, and was decently located.
On our drive from SF northward, we took the Avenue of the Giants once we got to it, and also stopped at every tourist stop we found, lol!! We went to Richardson Grove State Park and talked to a park ranger at the visitor center who told us where we should stop for lunch (a pizza place in an itty bitty town called Miranda). We stopped at Confusion Hill and the Chandelier Drive Thru Tree. We stopped at a few groves of trees with good parking areas, Founders Grove was one in particular to see the Dyerswood Giant. It's all just beautiful. We also took some time to drive down by the river and check it out.
On the first full day up there, we just drove north and stopped at several groves and visitor centers in the Redwood National Park, including Thomas Kuchel Visitor Center, and looked at the beach there. We went to Lady Bird Johnson Grove and walked the path loop, stopped to look for elk (prairie creek visitor center, I think), went through the Klamath Tour Thru Tree ( i guess i just needed to drive through a bunch of trees
), and one of our favorite things was Trees of Mystery. You walk the path through some really amazing trees, and they also have a gondola that you ride up through the trees. On the way back toward Eureka that day, if we saw something that looked interesting, we just took the road. We ended up on a scenic route that took us to a high cliff area where you could see the ocean and got some amazing views.
We stopped at Clam Beach, and Trinidad Beach...The Lighthouse Grill in Trinidad was so good we ate there two days in a row.
We had an amazing breakfast one day at Gil's By the Bay in Eureka - not a fancy place, locals heavy clientele, kind of a greasy spoon-ish place but SO GOOD.
We took a day trip over to Willow Creek for the Big Foot Museum, and the drive is beautiful (hilly and curvy if you have any car sick people with you). We hit Arcata on the way back, and old town Eureka.
There is a lot of homelessness in Eureka and the coastal small towns. Humboldt County in general, really, lots of transient people who just live life on the road, but a lot of open drug use (saw more up north than in SF, not counting weed, which is pretty much just a given in CA and we don't even notice anymore unless the smell hits you in the face b/c a big group of (most likely tourists) is smoking in a huge clump on the sidewalk in SF), so prepare yourself if that makes you uncomfortable. We saw a homeless guy lighting his crack pipe on a bench in downtown Eureka, which will jar you from your vacation mode. We are very open with our kids about the hardships of life, but I know some people are more sheltering of their kids, so it's just something to be aware of.
On the way back to SF we took a detour over to Ferndale, which is a beautiful little Victorian village, and worth seeing if you are into that sort of thing. I am, so it was worth it to me to make us go over there!
I know I've rattled on forever, but my best advice is to just explore the area! We saw so much incredible scenery that we wouldn't have if we didn't take some side roads from time to time.
You WILL lose GPS and phone service on the Avenue of the Giants and through the trees!! Everything is well marked and you won't get lost, but just be aware of that as well.
Sorry for writing a novel, but it was truly one of our favorite experiences. I'm glad you asked b/c it made me look back through our pictures and made me smile!