Blogs from Channel Islands National Park, California, United States, North America

Six thousand Western Gulls squawked across the heat baked crust of cliffs that was Anacapa. The day-trippers were leaving the island as we labored with our tent amid the relentless heat without a single shade tree. The island was less than a one hour boat ride from the Ventura coast, yet California seemed hazy and distant, a blurry line of something vague, somewhere we had been in the distant past. Anacapa was a small sliver of land, actually a set of four islets and a dozen smaller rocks on the way to the main islands. Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa stole the show, each easily fifty times the size of small Anacapa and boasting ranges of diminutive mountains, friendly island foxes, miles upon miles of hiking and long sandy beaches. But Anacapa was the gateway, the ... read more

My legs would have given out long before the trail did, nearly ten miles into what would eventually prove a total of thirty, hiking across Santa Rosa’s girth of over fifty thousand acres. From Mount Soledad, marked by a copper plate from the US Coastal and Geological Survey, we descended a precarious path slick with marble shaped rocks, a vast and distant vista filled by the deep blue channel separating our island from its sister Santa Cruz. The copious mist of the early morning had evaporated as we passed along the spine of a hill bisecting striated rock face cliffs and barren rolling hills. We had arrived via an Island Packers catamaran the day before, three hours from Ventura Harbor with a stop at Santa Cruz Island we crossed south to avoid the violent swells stirred ... read more

I took the early morning Amtrak (http://www.amtrak.com/) from my home in Orange County, connected at Union Station in Los Angeles and continued on to Ventura. The coastal city lies right where the 101 freeway hits the ocean and then turns north towards Santa Barbara. Upon arrival I grabbed a prearrange cab ride to the Island Packers headquarters located in Ventura Harbor. Island Packers (http://islandpackers.com/) is the sole way out to all five of the Channel Islands (minus your own boat). Check-in was quick and easy and thirty minutes later I was aboard the Island Adventure, a two story catamaran that operates off of bio-diesel. The captain came over the loud speaker with a series of safety instructions, facts and jokes as we made for open ocean. On a normal day, one can spot Santa Cruz and ... read more

Once back on the ship from our day in Catalina we headed up to the Lido Buffet for lunch then off to see what was happening on deck. Boy, there was a lot going on both on the ship and off! On the ship, the water slide was in full use and the kids looked like they were having a great time. The hot tubs were filled to the brim with sun-worshipping cruisers. Security was working overtime enforcing the 'no kids in this hot tub ... they can only be in that hot tub' rule. And all the while, onlookers were enjoying the show ... like us! We were still anchored and Catalina proved to be a luscious backdrop for all of the afternoon's activities. Off the ship, we watched parasailers being pulled by like ... read more

The story before the trip: Weighing out our options on winter travel, we picked out Channel Islands as a top possibility. Now, if you were following our blog for a while, you will be smart enough not to believe what I just wrote. The truth remains that we have visited every place we know & Channel Islands seemed a better option than yet another drive down to LA. Channel islands on wiki Close to the California mainland, yet worlds apart, Channel Islands National Park encompasses five remarkable islands (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara) and their ocean environment, preserving and protecting a wealth of natural and cultural resources. Isolation over thousands of years has created unique animals, plants, and archeological resources found nowhere else on Earth... read more