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Humboldt’s going viral again!

Sometime in the last month or so, popular YouTube travel vlogger Peter Santenello visited Humboldt County to learn about the vibrant community and towering trees local farmer and songwriter Brett McFarland sings about in his song “Humboldt,” a love letter to this beautiful place we call home. Santenello’s video has amassed more than 125,000 views since it was posted this morning. 

In the video, Santenello heads out to Crazy River Ranch to chat with a barefoot McFarland about the challenges of running an organic farm, his stint in prison, the back-to-the-land movement and much, much more.

“Humboldt County … is sort of a cultural melting pot where you have people that have very different values living close to each other and working together,” McFarland tells Santenello. “That’s one of the things I think is really beautiful [about this place]. … We have people that think differently … but I feel like people are a lot more tolerant of one another.”

After spending some time at the farm with local artist Ken Jarvela, McFarland and Santenello bop on over to the Arcata Farmer’s Market to share fresh-pressed apple juice with local vendors. They also swing by the Front Porch Inn, the boutique hotel McFarland runs with his wife, Julia. Then they head over to Blue Ox Millworks to chat with Eric Hollenbeck, nationally acclaimed woodworker and star of the Magnolia Network series The Craftsman. From there, McFarland and Santenello head north to check out Humboldt’s iconic trees at Redwood National Park.

“There’s just no way to capture it on camera,” Santenello says as he points his camera skyward trying to capture the towering trees. “This is so rad.”

While they’re wandering around the forest they run into a couple visiting from Germany and Brett invites them to his birthday party later that evening. What a guy!

Do yourself a favor and click “play” on the video above.