Among the more remote National Parks, visiting Channel Islands National Park requires taking a 90 minute boat ride from Ventura, CA to one or more of the five islands in the park. At the check-in for the boat ride, a nice lady there asked me if I was going to be ok with the large swells we would encounter along the way. I responded, “As ready as anyone can be” and then promptly walked over to the gift shop to buy some bonamine, or anti-nausea medication, for the journey. That turned out to be a good call. The swells were indeed large that day– large enough that even a 50mg dose of bonamine didn’t seem to be enough. I downed two more pills and then kicked back to enjoy the ride to my destination– Santa Cruz Island.
Santa Cruz Island
Over 20 miles in length and with a land mass of 96 square miles, Santa Cruz Island is the largest of the Channel Islands. It was once home to nearly 1500 Chumash Indians, who inhabited the islands and the nearby coastal areas around Ventura and Santa Barbara. It later became ranch land, hosting thousands of non-native sheep and pigs. Today, the islands are managed by the National Parks System, with the exception of part of Santa Cruz, which is managed by the Nature Conservancy. The non-native pigs and sheep are all gone and the islands are slowly returning to their undisturbed state. Known as the Galapagos of North America, these islands host over 150 unique species of plant and animal life that are only found here. Among them, the Island Fox is prevalent, with an estimated population of 2500 of these miniature foxes, each weighing in at just four pounds when fully grown.
Painted Cave
When you visit Santa Cruz Island, you have the option to add a side-excursion to Painted Cave, a large ocean cave on the easter side of the island. I highly recommend taking this detour, however it does cut your actual time on the island from 5 hours to about 2.5 hours. So if your primary interest is hiking, kayaking, or snorkeling, then take that into consideration.
Painted Cave is one of the largest sea caves in North America, extending nearly 1/4 mile into the island. The entrance to the cave is large enough that you can, provided the sea is calm enough, pilot a 60-foot boat directly into it. Fortunately, the water was calm enough for our captain to indulge us and enter the cave. It was a surreal experience floating underneath the jagged, colorful walls of the cave in nearly pitch black conditions.
Feeding Frenzy
From Painted Cave, our captain took us out about a mile offshore to see some Humpback whales which were feeding with a school of dolphins. The whales, dolphins, and birds all work together to feed whenever there is a large school of fish. It is quite an extraordinary experience to be in the middle of one of these feeding frenzies. Our Captain pointed our boat right into the midst of one and it became a 3-D experience with hundreds of seagulls, pelicans, and other birds hovering around us before dive-bombing the water to feed alongside the school of dolphins near our boat.
I’ve had many animal encounters at our National Parks, but have never experienced a spectacle like this ocean feeding frenzy.
After the feeding frenzy we made our way back to Prisoner’s Harbor on Santa Cruz Island. This harbor was the main trading hub for the island in its ranching days. There are still several historical buildings here, including storage buildings for wool and a lookout tower for monitoring approaching ships.
There are a number of self-guided hiking options from the landing in Prisoner’s Harbor. The Island Packers ferry also offers a guided four mile hike to nearby Pelican Harbor. This hike is shortened by about two miles if you opt to visit Painted Caves, but still gets you up to a few spectacular viewpoints overlooking Prisoner’s Harbor and the California coastline.
Along the way you’ll get to see some of the native plant life and, if you’re lucky, an Island Fox or two. We saw an Island Fox from a distance that appeared to be about the size of a small rabbit. After the hike we headed back to the dock to wait for our boat to take us back to the mainland. With four more islands to explore, I know I’ll definitely be back to see more of this beautiful, remote corner of our National Parks system.
