Channel Islands National Park, California

In March, Mike & I took a ten-day trip to California. We visited multiple national parks, drove up part of the Pacific Coast Highway, walked among Redwood trees, and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a fantastic trip, and we kicked it off by visiting the Channel Islands National Park!

Visiting this national park takes a fair amount of pre-planning, as the only way to get there is by boat. We chose to visit Santa Cruz Island, which is one of five islands in the park. You can sail out of either Santa Barbara or Ventura (where we went from) and it takes about an hour and a half to get out to the island. The tricky part is finding a campsite available and a boat reservation that match up. However, if you're able to camp, I think the experience is worth figuring out the details. There are a few primitive campsites on the island, but there are no facilities or food available to buy. Campers have to pack in (and out) everything you need, including food & trash. We stayed at the Scorpion Ranch campground at a site in the upper loop, which was a 1-mile hike in from the boat landing. We fit most of our supplies in our backpacks, so it wasn't a big deal to carry it. 

 The main visitors center is located right next to the boat company in Ventura. We loved this visitor's center - the exhibits were very interactive and well done! My favorite was "Dive Deep" which started at the bottom of the ocean and worked up to the land level through a series of stairs. 

  

Our boat left early in the morning and had beautiful views leaving the harbor.  Bottle-nose dolphins (above) and humpback whales (below) frequent the waters on the way out, we were fortunate enough to see both on our sail!

 We unloaded our packs off the boat, trekked up to our site, and set up camp. The bonus to being in the farthest site from the boat landing was that the trail started right next to our campsite! We hiked up the Scorpion Canyon Loop, then went down to Smugglers Cove, then finished up the canyon loop on our way back. It was about 9 miles total and we loved it!

  

 The Channel Islands are nicknamed "North America's Galapagos" because of the rich marine biosphere and number of endemic species native only to the islands. The island fox is one of these special animals and we saw quite a few during our trip.

After many miles, we made it to Smuggler's Cove! I think we saw four other people at the cove? It felt like we had it all to ourselves and it was awesome.

 Off in the distance is Anacapa Island, one of the other islands in the park.

  

  

 The hike back was long, mostly uphill, and sunny. As east coast hikers, we are used to an abundance of tree cover while hiking. This is not the case in sunny California. The hike was not shaded in the slightest and we had some red noses by the end!

  

     

 After many miles, we arrived back at camp. We enjoyed a surprisingly yummy meal of re hydrated  chicken & dumplings and Jamaican chicken & rice. The sun set right behind our tent and we enjoyed nature's show before snuggling into our tent for the night. 

The next morning we woke up before the sun to go watch the sunrise. We were greeted with soft pastel skies, fields filled with thousands of yellow flowers, and a beautiful rocky coastline. It was one of my favorite memories of the trip.  It was also the morning of my 25th birthday, so that made it extra special too! 

  

 We had packed our breakfast & Jetboil with us so that we could do get an early start on this hike without having to go back to camp. The 1.5 mile hike to Potato Harbor was absolutely beautiful. Most of the hike is right up against the coast and the early morning light made for incredible views!

  

   

Our destination - an overlook of the cute little cove that is Potato Harbor. After eating breakfast with this view, we went back down to camp and packed up. We had signed up for a kayaking tour later that morning, but unfortunately they were all cancelled due to high winds and unsafe sea conditions. Definitely a bummer, but I guess it just means we'll have to visit again one day!   

 We hung out at the beach for a bit, then decided we had time for one more short hike. We did the Cavern Point Loop to use some time before our boat back to the mainland. 

We really loved this national park - it is definitely in our top five favorites. Because of the remote location, it sees very few visitors annually. It also gets very quiet after the last boat leaves and only the overnight campers are left on the island. We saw only two other people on our sunrise hike and maybe a dozen on our nine-mile trek the day before. The solitude and diverse beauty of the islands are incredible, and we'd love to go back and visit again!