City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and the Avenue of the Giants.

An ethereal, gently warm fall day. Leaving the famous vine-lands of Sonoma under sunny skies, rolling north and into the NorCal leg of the trip, we headed for Ukiah on a chowhound tip. We were looking for The Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas — a Chinese Buddhist monastery — and its Jyung Kang (To Your Health) Restaurant. The monastery was founded by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua, a prolific founder of Buddhist institutions and the teacher of the Six Great Guidelines: not contending, not being greedy, not seeking, not being selfish, not pursuing personal profit, and not lying. The restaurant is of course entirely vegetarian; its emphasis is on “the love of fresh organic ingredients and the well being of all living beings.” They use no MSG, onions, garlic, chives, scallions, leeks or eggs. Still, we’ve heard their food praised for its flavor and the savory deliciousness of their tofu and gluten dishes.

The monastery is not a tourist attraction, but a quiet, contemplative working religious community and school. All visitors are asked to sign in at the visitors center, where we parked, signed in and set out across the campus to the restaurant. A peacock wandered by and as we walked along, passing the Instilling Goodness School, we were struck by the stately institutional architecture of the many buildings on the large park-like compound. It seemed late 19th/early 20th century, with Arts and Crafts dignity, and it spoke of a previous purpose for campus. Later, we were to learn what this was.

But on our visit that morning, we walked through the peaceful campus and by the great hall adorned with fantastic and gigantic painted figures, heavenly kings shod with curling slippers, surrounded by curling clouds in the Chinese style. Monks and students were gathering at the hall for midday devotions. We passed one small procession, lead by a bell ringer and accompanied by chanting students. Up the path an older nun walked with a younger companion who shaded the elder woman’s shaved head with a parasol. They talked softly. A school girl tagged alongside.

The small restaurant is in a pleasant but plain lunchroom with large windows. It reminded me of a classroom from my country grammar school in Ohio. When we arrived, a large three-generation Asian family was sharing a feast at a table in the middle of the room; the food looked great and the smells were enticing.

We sat near an open window and made our selections from a large menu filled with unfamiliar dishes, but thankfully, with many pictures. The friendly woman who took our order suggested the stir fried broccoli and house special fried rice, to which we added Vegetable Dumplings, Hot and Sour Soup, Seaweed Soup, Golden Balls with Ginger (savory fried gluten balls). Now, I thought the broccoli and fried rice might not be the most exotic things I could try, but she was so friendly, and so sure we would like them, that it only seemed polite to accept.

And, they were so good, the distinct flavor of each ingredient still fresh tasting, bright. The big bowls of soups were tangy. The seaweed soup tasting of the ocean. The hot and sour broth was light and complex with tender mushrooms and a delicate bean curd mesh. The dumplings were tender with a yummy mixed veg filling. And the Golden Balls were golden! These were little balls of salty savory wheat gluten fried and served with thinly shredded ginger. Nice texture, not too chewy. Very snacky. Very easy to pop one after another.

All this was served to us in giant portions, easy enough to feed four off any one plate and two on our “small” soup orders. So we feasted and packed up plenty of leftovers for dinner. $32 dollars for two meals of impeccably fresh, local and lovingly prepared food. Perfect.

On our way back to the car, the doors to the great hall were open to let in the day and we stood with our backs against an outside wall to listen to the resonant chanting, and then we peeked into a side hall filled with hundreds of golden and gilt porcelain Buddhas smiling serenely into the quiet. We visited the bookstore and then headed out the Mountain Gate, north for the great redwood forest.

As I drove for the Humboldt woods, Val iPhoned up the history of the 400+ acre campus and found that it was once a State Hospital, opened as the Mendocino Asylum for the Insane in the 1890s. Many buildings were being added to the site through the 1930s. The hospital was closed in the 1970s during a drought which made its further operation impossible. Venerable Master Hua purchased the property in the late 70s and used his “wisdom eye” to find a well that now feeds the whole complex.

In two hours we made the Humbolt Redwoods State Park. Humbolt is the home of one of the Great American Car Touring Roads, Highway 254, The Avenue of the Giants. The road leaves the busy 101 and winds gently through the spectacular redwood forest. It is lined with turnouts and parking areas, where visitors can just pull off, hop out of the car and in a few short steps be in a quiet grove of ancient and enormous trees, shaded by the high canopy, walking on trails carpeted with fallen needles and lined with sorrel and fern. So idyllic, you expect the fairies or your spirit guide or the leprechauns to show up and take you on some sylvan adventure. There are also the roadside attractions, like artifacts of vacations gone by: the tree you can drive through, the chimney tree, the house made of one tree, the eternal tree.

We took the Avenue and rolled along at 40 mph, stopping at this grove or that, as the day wore on. There’s no explaining the feeling of being in the presence of these trees; their scale throws off your perception, giving you an off-kilter other-worldly feeling. Each curve of the road reveals a wowing view and and you drive through the forest open mouthed. We pull off mid-afternoon and walk a trail down to the stony bank of the Eel River. We sat on the stones, shared big bites of Healdsburg Farmers Market marionberry pie and watched the river roll silently by. Birds fussed from the trees towering over far side of the river. Tiny fish darted in the shallows at our feet.

Then it was back up the trail that winds under fallen giants and through verdant underbrush to the car. Back onto the road. It was almost twilight when we got to the Founders Grove, a most spectacular and easily accessible old-growth grove that has been a preserve since the 1920s. It is the home of the Dyerville Giant. One of the forest’s largest trees, it was more than 370 feet tall — that’s 30 stories or as tall as Niagara Falls — and 1600 years old when it fell in 1991. It is more than 50 feet in circumference. A burl on the fallen tree is expected to sprout new growth, in keeping with the species name: Sequoia Sempervirens, or ever living.

Walking through the grove — alone, in the late of the day — was like being in the nave of a great cathedral with soaring ceilings, sacred perfumes, dappled lighting, velvet quiet. And when the sun was getting low and we knew we could linger no longer, we headed back to the car and walked up on a doe and her two fawns grazing on sorrel and stepping silently through the sword fern. We stood still, breathing quietly and watched the little family until they moved off into the deeper woods. Then we walked quietly back to the car.

^ On the Eel River trail

^ In Founders Grove

^ With the Dyerville Giant

^ Fallen trees become home to thousands of species

^ A fawn in Founders Grove

We stopped for the night at Rio Del at the very humble, but perfectly fine, Humboldt Gables Motel. We got there just before the fog started to roll into the spaces between the hills. There in our little room, we laid out a left over supper of our Jyung Kang food and our salads from Bangkok Cuisine in Berkeley. Then we cuddled up in the cool night to dream our woodland dreams.

Motelling Sidebar: We love the old 50s motels, but they share one problem: tissue thin walls. At the Humboldt Gables, the German guy in the room next to ours was snoring an aria from the Gotterdammerung and it sounded like his head was on the pillow next to mine. A 21st century solution: my iPhone app, Ambiance that lets you select from a menu of sounds to drown out noise in your environment. To counteract a German tourist snore, I found rain on a tin roof to be perfect. Soon I dropped off and was probably snoring the harmony like a Rhine maiden.

^ Humboldt Gables Motel, Rio Del CA Click here for a map of this day’s locations.