Channel Islands National Park

May 24, 2023

This is another park that requires planning in advance. The only way to get to the park is by boat. There is a public ferry operated by Island Packers that runs everyday but it gets booked full. I bought my ticket about three weeks prior to the trip. There are nine channel islands, of which five are in the National Park. Santa Cruz is the largest and most popular with the tourists. Lots of kayaking adventures on this island. The majority of the passengers on the ferry got off on Santa Cruz. Based on the island descriptions and ferry schedule, I picked Santa Rosa which is the second largest island and just to the west of Santa Cruz.

The ferry left Ventura Harbor and was barely out of the buoys when bottle nose dolphins greeted us. About 30 minutes later there were common dolphins jumping to the left of us and a bunch of sea lions swimming to the right. A short distance further we stopped to observe a giant sun fish. After dropping passengers on Santa Cruz, we made our way around the island to the left and immediately saw a humpback whale. The rest of the way to Santa Rosa was less eventful.
A volunteer guide was joining us on the island for the 3.5 hours we had before the ferry picked us back up. Most of us went on our own hikes. I took off down a supposed road to hike in a stand of Torrey Pine trees which are unique to these islands. The road is barely a dirt path. I got to the crossing at Water Canyon to find the bridge had been washed away. Water canyon is exactly what it sounds like, a steep canyon filled with deep water. I hiked back up to a spot that led down to the beach so that I could walk up and down the pristine vacant beach and have lunch. I very much appreciated this beach after seeing the packed hordes at the beaches in Italy.

I needed more hiking so Cherry Canyon trail would make a loop to get back to the ferry. I passed a very old man that had a hard time walking up to the road from the pier. I was surprised he was trying this more strenuous trail and several people tried to talk him out of hiking it, but he continued. I caught up to the volunteer guide and a few other day hikers. After joining them, a short distance later an older lady slid off the side of the steep trail and needed help getting up. Luckily, she was just bruised. The trail had great views from higher up showing the beaches, ocean, fields of wild grasses and then amazing wildflowers when we dipped back into the canyon. Hairy vetch, California poppies (more yellow than the common orange), coast paint brush, Island Monkey Flower, Giant Coreopsis, lupine, thistle, verbena, yarrow, blue dicks and morning glory were seen. We got back to the main ranch house/pier area with time to spare so I checked out the old ranch single room school house that stopped operating in 1932. The island had been privately owned for about 150 years for sheep and cattle ranching. Many buildings and corrals are still intact.