Channel Islands National Park is a magnificent place off the coast of California. It is called the “Galapagos Islands of North America.” There are five islands you can adventure out to; Anacopa Island, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara. Each island different and each island protected by the Nature Conservancy and National Park Service.
It wasn’t protected by the National Park service until 1980, so pretty recently. There are flora and fauna on these islands that can’t be found anywhere else in the world!
Many people camp there. And they camp well too! It’s like backpacking but more of a camping style. The people bring coolers, and fishing poles, kayaks, guitars, you name it. The people have a ball out here camping! If you want to camp here just make sure you reserve ahead of time because there is only limited camping and it tends to fill up fast. People stay from a day to several days and even a week. Just make sure you bring enough food, there are no restaurants and anything on these islands. It is completely desolate!
What a cool looking ranch, love the tree!
Well, minus some families that have lived on these islands before it was a National Park. There are a couple ranches abandoned and still flourishing ones on these islands. But they do their thing, and you do yours.
Note: Just make sure you don’t bring too much because when the boat docks, you will be carrying all your stuff to the campgrounds, and it’s a fair walk, especially Santa Rosa.
When your on these boat rides, inside the boat, they offer food and drinks, and yes, beer is in the category of drinks!!! And the captain will stop whenever he/she spots wildlife.
Gray Whale, the biggest animal on the planet!
They don’t call these boats whale watching tours, but it mine as well be. Just the two days I was out there, we saw hundreds of dolphins, a shark, a couple humpback wales, a blue whale (which is the biggest animal on the planet!), a couple seals and many many birds!
It was great! So not only do you see the islands, but the marine life too!
Hello Dolphin!
So I decided to explore two islands, and like I said there all different. I went to the furthest island, Santa Rosa Island and the biggest island Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is a popular day-hiking spot since it only takes an hour or so to get there. And you can spend all day there until 500 pm. Tours leave generally 8 and 9am.
Santa Rosa Island:
This island takes 2 1/2 hours to get there. It is the farthest island. So if you enjoy spending time on the ocean, this is your island. You get great views of the other islands and Santa Rosa is also beautiful with white sandy beaches and canyons.
This island has existing ranches on the island. You will see them as soon as you arrive to the island and start hiking. There are wild horses here. Since these horses were brought to this island and they were never native here, the park service had them neutered and now when these horses perish, there will be no more wild horses to roam on Santa Rosa.
The trails are well worn, they are very distinctive to follow, but there weren’t too many signs. Make sure you take a map with you so you don’t get lost! There are two popular trails for day hikers and usually there is a tour going on so if you want to learn the history a little bit and learn about the flora and fauna, you might want to take this tour.
These plants are so different!
But with some tours, it’s kind of at a leisurely pace, so if your pressed for time and want to see a lot in a short period of time, like me, bring your map, put on your hiking shoes, and start walking!
The two most popular hiking trails on this island is the cherry coastal trail and Torrey pines trail. Here is the map of the hiking trails if you like.
The Torrey pines are only here and one other place in the world, a golf coarse in San Diego. You have to take the coastal trail to get to these Torrey Pines so not only are you seeing a rare tree, but you are also exploring the coast and the beaches along the way. This is the one I picked. I figured, I’ve seen tons of canyons, I want to see the coast! So I picked this one.
Shot when you approach water canyon
When you pass water canyon, go here! Even if you don’t want to hike the Torrey Pines trail and just want to relax and lay on the beach.
If you want your personal white sandy beach, go to Water Canyon! This isn’t a terribly far walk. Just a couple miles and it is worth it. I stayed here a little while and just breathed and hung out watching the waves. It was very relaxing.
If your staying hiking or camping, doesn’t matter, don’t miss your boat ride back to the mainland! The tours here only come once every three days!!! And they want you to arrive at the port 45 minutes prior to your departure. Just a heads up.
Coming back from Santa Rosa, they bring you to a cave that was filmed in Pirates of the Carribean. It is common to see seals in there. I missed it. I actually passed out on the boat I was so tired, but caught the caving experience! Whoops! This girl was tuckered out!
Hello Cave!
Santa Cruz Island:
Santa Cruz Island is the biggest of these islands. It offers more of a chance to see the Island Fox. An animal that can’t be found anywhere else in the world! Apparently they are very abundant on this island. I didn’t see any though, but that’s OK. I seen a lot! As for right now, the pier was knocked out by a storm, so they actually brought us a shore by these boats. It was a neat experience!
A hike I very much suggest!!! Hike to smugglers cove.
It’s a seven mile round trip hike from where the boat docks! Not too bad of a hike as far as elevation goes. You definitely need to be in shape though. And bring plenty of water! Well, the views when you are on the beach at smugglers cove are amazing. I got my favorite picture from this whole channel island experience here! I absolutely loved it! And this if for you grandma!!! Hope your reading this. I know you love your see-shells!
At the end of the day, my new friend and I, Bob, who I was delighted to meet on the boat heading to Santa Cruz, ate lunch together sharing and reminiscing our hiking experiences. We got visited by a crow, in which he told me an incredible story that I never knew about crows!
I use to not like crows, but now Bob gave me a reason to enjoy them. Very smart birds!
It’s a long story how he got this very interesting information, a great story actually, but what he learned was crows and wolves not only co-exist with each other, but they help each other out. I could see the crow to the wolves very easily.
The wolves kill the elk, bison, whatever, and the crow eats the left overs. But what the crows do for the wolves, I had no idea! The crows will sometimes tell or show the wolves were there is food, whether it be an elk, caribou, what have you, and even the crows will sometimes play with the cubs. It has been spotted crows playing tug-of-war with the cubs. That is amazing! I mean both types of animals are extremely intelligent so that type of relationship is possible. Very very cool!
Well there is exploring the Channel Islands in a nut shell! I hope you enjoyed this article. This is now one of my favorite places and I would definitely go again. Next time, especially if I have someone to enjoy it with, I want to go camping. There’s also snorkeling. And the ocean is sooooo beautiful!!! The greens and the blues!!!!! Its so pretty!!!!! If you want more information go to the National Park Service Visit here and to book a campsite go click on this link…Campsite website.
Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Shelly/Livingonthedirt!
You are on an awesome adventure. I enjoy reading your blog. I see you published the picture of your favorite tree.
Yes I did! I just love that tree!!!! And I’m so glad I had such as great hiking partner!!!! You really lifted up my spirits. Just finished Point Lobos! It really is a phenomenal place!