A Channel Islands trip has been on my bucket list for ages. It's hard one to pull off if you're like me and don't plan ahead because camping reservations fill up fast on weekends year round, and are near impossible to get on any day between Memorial day and fall. I kept meaning to book a trip this fall and winter but never got around to it. Recently I noticed that reservations had gone from not hard to find to almost completely booked for months out. I managed to find a combo of campsite and boat availability that worked (each has to be booked separately) and pulled the trigger.

The plan was for Santa Cruz Island, with a boat over to Prisoner's Harbor one day, hike across the island with a campsite booked at Scorpion Harbor, and then catch a boat back to the mainland from there the next day. Departing boat was at 4pm so it left much of the second day to explore as well. Had the boat left in the morning I would have booked a second night of camping.


Boats leave from Ventura harbor. I drove up morning of and almost got screwed by LA traffic. Thought I left plenty early, but even the 101 north of LA had miles of gridlock heading away from LA at 7am.


Lots of National Park service boats in the harbor.




Boat ride over was pretty cool. Tons of dolphins once we got about half way out. You could look in any direction and see tons of them jumping. The captain said they'd been seeing lots of whales recently, but none today. They did take us over close to one of the oil platforms which was cool to see up close-ish.




The islands and the coast were pretty socked in with marine layer. That didn't bode well for views from the island, but would make for a cool atmosphere...and cool temperatures.




The hike looked like it would be misty!




Pulling up to the dock. Was a bit surprised to see a bunch of vehicles arriving to meet the boat. 3/4 of the island is owned by the Nature Conservancy. They had a bunch of people on the boat who were getting picked up. Shouldn't those tree huggers to the environmentally friendly thing, and walk in? : )




Welcome to Prisoners Harbor






There was some different looking vegetation on the island. Was told these occur on the mainland too but I've never seen them




The first couple miles of the hike was up the Navy Road. Had a couple Nature Conservancy trucks go by, otherwise it was quiet. Saw one couple hiking up the road. They were the last people I'd see til Scorpion camp




I turned onto the Del Norte Trail. It was a just a bit overgrown. But never hard to follow. I was a bit surprised, seemed like this should be a popular hike but it didn't seem like it actually sees much traffic.




The trail crossed a couple steep canyons. The steeper parts were less overgrown than the flatter parts.




Some nice flowers out




Plenty of birds out, and the noise they made seemed amplified by what was otherwise dead quiet




I stopped for a minute to check out Del Norte camp, a small backcountry campsite with 4 spots. Pretty nice, wish I could have stayed there but those are even harder to book than Scorpion. No one there yet. I think a lot of people do the short hike to Pelican Bay before hiking in to camp.




Saw a few Island Live oak trees and even a few scraggly pine trees up on the higher parts of the ridge.




One of the many birds flitting around




Island live oak. Really cool looking trees especially in the mist




I finally broke out of the clouds. Of course this happened on the steepest climb of the day




Headed straight up to the top of the ridge




That distant mountain poking out of the cloud is still on Santa Cruz Island.




Pretty cool terrain. Looking back down half way to the top.




From the top of the climb looking down toward Smuggler's Cove on the south side of the Island. The hike I was planning to do the next day would loop around the south/east side of the island and climb up to the same spot I was at now.




Lots of these cool plants up on the ridge.




The hike down to Scorpion from the ridge was a bit of a let down. Steep and wide, loose and cobbly. And no views because of the cloud.

I was kinda wishing I'd taken the route closer to the coast. But had figured even that wouldn't have good views with the cloud. This way was shorter and my feet and knees were starting to hurt.




I'd seen a couple island foxes already. And lots of evidence along the trail. Closer to Scorpion there was some aggro pooping going on.




Go figure, one of the first sights upon reaching the campground




Pretty nice campground. But where was everyone? All the sites were booked, but less than half seemed to be occupied. I got to the campground around 6, all the boats should have arrived by noon. Only saw a couple people hike in after I got there.




I set up camp and had dinner. Scheduled at 8pm was a talk by a long time resident/rancher on the Island before it became a National Park. So I wandered over toward the pier. Lots of old farm machinery on display there.

My feet and knees were really sore, so I'd dug around in the first aid kit for any painkillers. I think the mystery pills I found were leftover oxy, because I had quite the full body buzz going combined with the 10% imperial stout I'd packed along.




It was well past dark by the time the talk was over. Headed back and crashed out.

The route I'd planned for day 2 was a bit dubious having the same mileage that I'd hiked the first day. That hike took around 7 hours total for 12-13 miles, so I'd want to be going by 8 to safely get back to the harbor by 3 when the boat would arrive.

Wakeup time came and went, campground was pretty quiet so I actually slept in til around 930. That's unheard of for me camping, but the cloud layer kept things cool so there was little incentive to get up.


Decided on a shorter hike to Potato Harbor instead. It was very damp in camp. And just as damp once I got on trail.




Foxes were out in force. There were probably half dozen roaming around the campground. Each campsite had its own bear box to protect food against foxes and ravens.




I took a trail out of camp that climbed straight up to the ridgeline above with good views of the coast




Lots of bays along the way to check out




Potato Harbor isn't far away. There was a nice looking beach down there with signs saying steep cliffs - no beach access




Unless you're a bird.




Peek-a-boo. Should have known there would be a scavenger at a popular hiking destination




He was a bit shy, but moved slow enough for some good photos




Winner




I made the hike back with an hour or so to spare before the boat arrived. There were a ton of big school groups doing short hikes along the coast trail. They were all hanging out near the dock as I got back so I moved off to a picnic site a little ways off and had a nap. Then got in line for the boat. It was a lot more packed than the one to Prisoners




Lots of dolphins again




And we saw a number of whales. The boat was probably stopped for around 20mins just to watch them. The captain called this surge feeding, where the whale would charge at a school of fish from below. It wouldn't completely breech, just the snout would pop out of the water like this. Lots of dolphins and seals and birds swarming around to feed as well.




My feeding frenzy was back in Ventura where the nearest tacos was a popup shop alongside a shopping center. Killer tacos, and a great trip! I will be back for sure to do more hiking and check out some of the less visited islands. Hopefully with more sun than cloud next time.

Excellent write up!!!

I went to Santa Rosa Island a number of years ago and did a few really good hikes over there. The boat only goes to Santa Rosa twice a week so you have to book more days to sync with pickup and drop off, and the campground is just over a mile from the dock, so you do not get the weekend warrior types that Scorpion Bay does.

My brother and dad camped at Del Norte and hiked in from Prisoners Bay. They stayed a few days up there and hoofed all their water up to that camp. My dad said it was one of the most grueling hikes he ever did since he had so much water on him, and they had full sun and heat for the entire hike.

I want to go back to Santa Rosa next year now that my son is old enough to do the hike into the camp sites. How was the wind? Santa Rosa is very windy.

It was pretty calm when I was there. Wind would be worse when it is sunny out.

The campground at Scorpion is down in a valley and under big oak trees, so it is quite sheltered from both wind and sun - part of why it's so popular. Up on the ridges hiking you'd be exposed if it was windy, same with camping at Del Norte CG.

I'd like to check out some of the other islands for sure.

My understanding is the prevailing wind come from the North West and San Miguel and Santa Rosa are both exposed in a way the most of Santa Cruz is not. The boat to get to Santa Rosa heads to Scorpion first, then it goes south around the point and travels up the south facing side of Santa Cruz before crossing the channel to Becher's Bay at Santa Rosa.

I remember sailing into the anchorage at about the midpoint of Santa Cruz island the lee side when I was in my teens. It was quite beautiful then, and the water on the lee side was almost glassy, out around 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile, where you could see some serious chop and whitecaps, etc.
So, the channel islands really have a good deal of wind in the channels between them.
Makes for some fun sailing.

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Scum on a Bike

Great photos, evdog!