Arcata

Walkable California coastal town on Humboldt Bay, Arcata has a café-dense centre, a concentration of historic churches, and easy access to mountain terrain inland. Founded in 1850 as Union and renamed Arcata in 1860, it is home to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, and serves as a base for the Bureau of Land Management's oversight of a large stretch of public land in northwestern California, including the Headwaters Forest.

• Population17,843
• Nearest water0.1 km
• Nearest mountain6.0 km