Arcata Ridge Trail

The Arcata Ridge Trail does something few towns manage: it lets you cross the entire city, north limit to south border, without leaving redwood-covered hillside. Four and a half miles from West End Road under the Highway 101 overpass, along the ridge through the Arcata Community Forest, across Fickle Hill Road, and down into the Sunny Brae Forest Tract to a southern trailhead on Buttermilk Lane marked by an army-green water tank.

It took more than a decade to finish. The concept dates to the late 1990s, and the last piece — a 1,600-foot connector across Fickle Hill linking the two separate city forest properties — was completed in 2022.

It's open to hikers, cyclists and equestrians. Dogs are welcome on leash. Like the rest of the forest system it closes sunset to sunrise, and sections can close for maintenance through the wet winter and spring months, so summer and early fall are the reliable window.

There are no facilities on the trail itself. Redwood Park at the 11th and 14th Street trailheads is where the restrooms are, and it's also the easiest place to join the route midway rather than committing to the full traverse.

What makes it worth doing as a through-route rather than a loop is the continuity — second-growth redwood the entire way, with the town below you and Humboldt Bay opening up through the trees. Most people walk a section and turn around. Fewer do the whole thing, which is a shame, because the point of it is the whole thing.