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This walk (and boat ride) on the wild side features endangered species and amazing vistas, just an hour offshore.
Twenty-or-so miles of Santa Barbara Channel separate the five islands that comprise Channel Islands National Park from the mainland. This means they are separate from any vehicular onslaught that can make other national parks seem more like roadside attractions than crown jewels of nature. It also means a day trip can become part whale-and-dolphin watch.
Getting to Santa Cruz
The winter day we make our trip to Santa Cruz, the biggest of the five islands, the sea is tame and the sun bright. The first thing you realize when approaching the islands is that they are huge. The modest-looking lumps we see as we gaze out to sea are actually mountains half-buried in the ocean. Mount Diablo on Santa Cruz rises almost 2,500 feet from sea level, and Santa Cruz itself is over 20 miles long and nearly 100 square miles in total (three times the size of Manhattan). Stunning cliffs rise hundreds of feet out of the ocean. But before the boat makes its first stop at Scorpion Cove, the captain takes a detour so we can watch migrating gray whales. We see spouts, tails, and even a couple breaches — likely energetic juveniles.
Islands are hotbeds for biodiversity, as the plants and animals evolve in isolation to suit the specific ecosystem of the islands. With the livestock gone, the native fauna and flora are returning.
When we disembark at Scorpion Cove, a volunteer gives us a quick rundown of island rules, after which we join him on a leisurely hour-long hike to Cavern Point, a cliff-edge overlook whose scenery rivals any national park vista. Along the way, the volunteer, Doug Crispin, educates and entertains. Doug, who’s a 52-year(!) veteran ranger, spends his summers at the Grand Canyon, where he’s a paid ranger, and this winter volunteering at Channel Islands. He’s resolved to keep rangering until his knees or heart stop him.
Island History
The story Doug tells us about Santa Cruz is the story of modern conservation in miniature. The Chumash lived on the islands for millennia. Europeans arrived in earnest in the early 1800s and established ranches on the island, raising mainly sheep, but also beef cattle and pigs by the 1850s. These ranching operations lasted until the 1980s, even after the islands had been declared a national monument (in 1938) and a national park (in 1980). The story since the 1990s has been one of cleaning up the mess.
And the mess the ranchers left behind was considerable, primarily populations of feral sheep and pigs, as well as a landscape covered with invasive plant species that thrived in the wake of the sheep and pigs. The victims of these invasives were rare and endemic plant and animal species.
Islands are hotbeds for biodiversity, as the plants and animals evolve in isolation to suit the specific ecosystem of the islands. With the livestock gone, the native fauna and flora are returning. Many species found nowhere else call the Channel Islands home, and together the NPS and the Nature Conservancy, which owns three-quarters of the island, continue efforts to restore the delicate island ecosystem.
Endemic Wildlife
Doug tells us islands breed giants and dwarves – either can have advantages in this habitat. Island scrub-jays (which are only on Santa Cruz, the smallest range of any North American bird) are a third bigger than their mainland counterparts. They are heartier, which means they can go longer without food, and they also don't have predators like on the mainland.
The island fox got small, and conveniently needs fewer resources. Found only on the Channel Islands, this petite fox (about the size of a housecat, but slighter) was almost extinct 20 years ago. But after an amazingly brief and successful restoration effort, which involved shuffling some eagles around and the culling of 5,000 feral pigs (Santa Barbara writer T.C. Boyle presents a fictionalized, but largely accurate, account of the eradication efforts in his novel When the Killing’s Done, available on Amazon), the foxes roam the campground near Scorpion Cove, all but oblivious to humans nearby.
The foxes now number around 2,900. NPS wildlife biologist Tim Coonan calls the saving of the island fox “one of the most successful, and quickest, recovery programs in the history of endangered species.” They are also adorable, mostly gray with reddish underbellies and a white muzzle that gives them a smirking appearance. They scamper about, noses to the ground, scanning for the fruits, bugs, and assorted critters that make up their omnivorous diet. It’s amazing to observe such a rare animal in its natural habitat, especially one that was so close to extinction just 20 years ago.
The Return Voyage
As our hike with Doug ends, we take the clifftop coastal trail back to Scorpion Cove, then wander up the Scorpion Valley trail a bit to get a taste of the island’s interior before taking in the view from Smuggler’s Road.
Then it’s time to reboard for the trip back. Again we detour to view wildlife, this time a “megapod” of common dolphins frolicking around the boat. Common dolphins are plentiful in the channel, and the tours encounter them almost daily. But with a day of amazing scenery, engaging history, fascinating ecology, and inspiring conservation in our wake, these playful creatures leaping about the boat seem to join us in our celebration.
Planning a Trip
- Getting There: Island Packers is the official park concessionaire cruising out of Ventura Harbor or Oxnard to four of the five park islands. The most-popular (and shortest) trip is Ventura to Scorpion Cove on Santa Cruz. Book in advance.
- Playing There: In addition to hiking, concessionaires offer kayak and snorkel tours from Scorpion Cove, perhaps the best way to see the sea caves and kelp forests lining the coast.
- Staying There: There are campgrounds on all five islands, and reservations are required in advance.
