I knocked Channel Islands National Park off of my checklist! It’s located off the coast of Southern California, a 40 minute boat ride away, and the only way to get to the islands is by boat or airplane, which is located at the visitor center in Ventura. There are 8 islands total, and you can choose from 5 to visit. Because this park is so hard to get to, it is the least visited of all National Parks. There are no amenities on the island except restrooms, so anything you might need, including food, must be brought with you. There is one campground on each island, if you choose to stay the night and experience all that the Channel Islands have to offer.
The history of the Channel Islands stems from the Chumash tribe, and 1,200 of them used to habit these islands. There is 10,000 years of American Indian remnants found here. The people built large plank canoes and used those to travel back and forth between the mainland for trade.
Santa Cruz Island
We chose to visit Santa Cruz, because it was the biggest island, and it felt like it had the most to offer. Only 24% of this island is actually open for people to explore. It contains 2 mountain ranges, and houses one of the largest and deepest caves in the world, Painted Cave. During the Spring, the entrance of the cave is engulfed by a waterfall. We started out with our boat ride, and on the way we got to see huge pods of Dolphins, some Sea Lions, as well as some Humpback Whales.
Cavern Point Loop Trail
When we got to the island, since it was too cold to snorkel, and too windy to kayak (we are Florida wimps), we decided to start with the 2 mile Cavern Point Loop trail. This trail takes you around the perimeter of the island along the cliff edges, for constant costal views. Although the best things to see at this island are all underwater, in the extensive kelp forests.
Potato Harbor
From the tip of the loop, we took the North Bluff Trail West for 2 miles out to Potato Harbor. Probably the prettiest part of the island in my opinion. Unfortunately there’s no beach access to the harbor, unless you came by your own boat.
We ended our day trip looping back to the campsite and stopped at the picnic area for a late lunch. Remarkably there are 145 unique species to the Channel Islands alone, including the Channel Islands Fox. The fox has no predators on this island, which means they aren’t afraid of people or anything. They come right up to the picnic area looking for scraps.
At the end of the day, it was a great trip. The setting looks just like any other Southern California mountain range, dried terrain and not much shade. But seeing the dolphins and whales were a great treat that I wasn’t expecting at all!
