From San Francisco, Channel islands National Parks is relatively close and can be done in a 3-day weekend. Channel Islands is not very popular because it’s relatively hard to get to and most of the features require to dive to see them. There are about 30,000 visitors a year that actually go to the islands and another 60,000 that simply dive there. The reward is well worse the trouble, it’s not frequently that you can hike in a National Park in California and not being crowded. The park is composed of five islands (Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, Anacapa and Santa Barbara), all are open to the public except the island of San Miguel which is currently closed.
With a little bit of planning before your trip you can secure a camping spot and a place on the boat to get to the islands. There is currently one established campground on each island: above the Landing Cove on Santa Barbara, on the east islet of Anacapa, at Scorpion Ranch on Santa Cruz, at Water Canyon on Santa Rosa. The two best campgrounds are on Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz (which also happened to be the two largest islands).
We chose to go to Santa Cruz island and you can book a spot at the Scorpion Ranch campground. It’s a confortable campground and you can even rent kayaks to go explore the nearby painted cave. Painted Cave on Santa Cruz Island is one of the world’s largest known sea caves. The cave measures 1215 feet in length (the size of more than four football fields), has a 160 foot entrance, and is almost 100 feet wide.
Click to get the full map.
The hard portion is probably the 5 and 1/2 hour drive from the Bay Area. So I broke the travel in shorter runs but you can drive directly if you are short in time. I highly recommend to stop at the Firestone Walker brewery in Paso Robles, get some food and of course load up on beers. Those 805 will become handy at the campsite. As much as I would like to linger there, we are only halfway to Ventura Harbor.
Then we drove to Santa Barbara Friday night and spent the night in Santa Barbara and early the next morning we left for Ventura Harbor. If you go in the summer time, you can even woke up earlier to catch the sunrise over the old mission in Santa Barbara. The morning we went, it was very quiet and quite beautiful. Of course, summer time you have more chances of having a foggy morning.
Santa Barbara mission
Santa Barbara mission
There are several boats per day, but we had reservations for the 8am boat. The ferry ride to the island of Santa Cruz is 1.5 hours or so and is really enjoyable. The captains take their time to stop if they see marine wildlife. This region is extremely popular with dolphins, whales, and orca. If you are choosing other islands, the ferry time might be longer (Santa Rosa and Santa Barbara Island crossings take 2.5-3.5 hours, San Miguel Island crossing takes from 3-4.5 hours).
We were lucky to see an orca pod, not really close but close enough to know it was an orca.
Later we saw dolphins and they came close to the boat.
Dolphins catching up with our ferry.
Dolphins playing with the wake of the boat.
When you get to the island, the boat is coming in this great cove. This is Scorpion Ranch and it’s your new home.
The views from the cliff above the loading dock are pretty amazing, here is the departure of another boat later that day
Santa Cruz island is the largest island of the group, there is a lot of hiking and discovering to be done. Our first hike was to Cavern Point and then going on to Potato harbor. It’s an easy 5 miles hike along the cliffs with spectacular coastal views.
The Channel islands have indigenous species that only exist there, among them is the island fox (Urocyon littoralis). It’s a small fox that is native to six of the eight Channel Islands of California. As a fun fact, each island have a subspecies of this fox, specific to the island. There are six subspecies of the fox, Urocyon littoralis littoralis of San Miguel Island, Urocyon littoralis santarosae of Santa Rosa Island, Urocyon littoralis santacruzae of Santa Cruz Island, Urocyon littoralis dickeyi of San Nicolas Island, Urocyon littoralis catalinae of Santa Catalina and, Urocyon littoralis clementae of San Clemente Island.
Island fox (Urocyon littoralis santacruzae) in Channel Islands National Park.
The next day, I would recommend exploring the beach and renting kayaks to explore the marine portion of the island. For the more physically inclined, the Montañon Ridge and down to the other dock (Prisoners Harbor) is a 21-mile hike which is strenuous but so rewarding with amazing vista of the island and the coast.
That’s it. It’s already Sunday and time to head back North. The ferry ride is as beautiful as ever. As protected as this piece of sea and land is, only few hundred meters from it, oid production is active, I’m really hoping that no incident can spoil those islands.
The sunset was adding is own glow to the Santa Cruz islands.
Lastly our dolphins friends came to say goodbye and we were back at the dock
Now you have to drive back, if you want to make it for Monday morning but if you have a bit of time, I have included a couple of my favorite destinations that are on the way to San Francisco. Sometimes, it’s good to take the long way home.
San Luis Obispo mission
San Luis Obispo is on the way and you can simply stop for a couple of hours to get coffee/lunch/dinner on your way back. The old mission is also beautiful and Downtown has great breweries (12 and counting) and also great restaurants.
San Luis Obispo mission
San Luis Obispo mission
Pismo beach
Pismo beach is not exactly on the shortest path for going back to San Francisco but this town is so enjoyable that I often find myself driving in just for the clams. I highly recommend going to the Splash cafe for a bowl of clam chowder (the best I had on the West Coast) and Eclair Bakery in nearby Arroyo Grande.
Pismo beach
Pismo beach
Pismo beach
Pismo beach
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle is worth the visit, it’s absolutely incredible. Obviously the swimming pool is extra-ordinary but the rest of the house is well worth visiting too.
I have written a more detailed post earlier. But if you are coming back from this trip and have an extra day, this is an great extension.
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle
Morro Rock
Morro Rock is “on the way”, so if you are in no hurry that’s also a very good destination if you want to enjoy your way back.
Morro rock
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