US Map / Cities / Anaheim

Anaheim Map

Anaheim reaches across northern Orange County from the flat Santa Ana River plain east into the canyon that separates the Chino Hills from the Santa Ana Mountains.

Where is Anaheim?

Anaheim is in northern Orange County, California, roughly 10 miles inland from the Pacific and about 25 miles down the Santa Ana Freeway from downtown Los Angeles. It is a suburb of Los Angeles by history and commuting pattern, but it is also the largest city in a county of more than three million people, with its own convention business, a major league ballpark and a resort district. Santa Ana, the county seat, adjoins it immediately to the south; Long Beach is about 20 miles west, Irvine some 15 miles southeast, and Riverside roughly 30 miles east through the canyon.

Anaheim at a glance

Anaheim in California

Orange County is the third most populous county in California and the densest one south of the Bay Area, and Anaheim is its largest city — ahead of Santa Ana and Irvine, both of which also appear in the national top 100. The California county map shows how small Orange County is in area for the number of people it carries. Anaheim was founded in 1857 by German winegrowers who bought a block of the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana, and the vineyards lasted until disease killed them in the 1880s. The change that made the modern city was Disneyland, which opened on former orange groves in 1955 and pulled the freeways, hotels and jobs toward it. The California state page covers the wider state.

The Santa Ana River and the canyon

The Santa Ana River crosses Anaheim from northeast to southwest on the last stretch of its run to the ocean at Huntington Beach — most of the year it is a concrete-lined channel with very little in it, and in a wet winter it is the largest flood risk in Orange County. East of the built-up flats the city narrows into a long arm following the Santa Ana Canyon, where the river cuts between the Chino Hills to the north and the coastal Santa Ana Mountains to the south. That gap is the only easy route between Orange and Riverside counties, and it carries a freeway, a rail line and the city's Anaheim Hills neighborhoods, which climb well over 1,000 feet above the 150-foot elevation of downtown.

Cities near Anaheim

Its immediate neighbors are Santa Ana and Irvine; a little further out are Long Beach, Riverside and Los Angeles, with San Diego about 95 miles down the coast. The US map with cities shows how crowded this corner of the country is.