Channel Islands

After a couple of fun days of visiting our friends, the Meisters, out in Carpenteria, California, we were off for our next adventure. The kids had a great time hanging out with their friends and we enjoyed seeing Brent and Laurel again. We were able to discuss the Panama trip that we were planning with them in the summer months and got a first hand glimpse of local life along the coast in Southern California. It sure is nice to have good friends. Our next adventure, though, was to take a boat ride from Island Packers out to Santa Cruz Island and spend New Year's Eve camping in the Scorpion Cove Campground in Channel Islands National Park.

Our boat was at 10 AM, so we had all of our gear packed the night before. We left with plenty of time and had no issues finding the harbor, but still we were the last people camping to arrive. Whew, cut that one kind of close. As a result, we were nearly the last people to get on the boat so we were stuck with a middle seat facing the wrong direction. I had debated about making this trip for a long time because this boat ride was so expensive, but the opportunity to visit this unique island out in the Pacific seemed worth it to me. The boat was completely full with a capacity of what seemed to be about 100 people.

The crew gave us a long speech about throwing up outside the boat if we felt sea sick and that made us all a bit nervous. We were going to have some choppy seas and we found out right away when we made it out of the harbor and over some crashing waves. The kids were excited about it as we rose and then dove as we motored past each crest of the wave. So far, no one was having trouble with sea sickness, though. We spent most of the trip inside the boat, but about halfway through, I went outside to enjoy the open air. Then Jacqueline went outside and finally when we coasted next to a group of dolphins Zyla went out to see the view.

When someone did finally throw up which made the boat smell of old macaroni and cheese, I forced Conrad to go outside to see the dolphins which is where all four of us spent most of the rest of the boat ride. It was much better to enjoy the view outside then inside the boat. The boat ride was supposed to be an hour, but after loading, unloading, and getting a speech from a ranger about taking care of the island, it ended up being about 2 hours. We hiked our gear out to campsite 17 and we were one of the only ones that treated this like it was a backpacking trip. There were people with coolers and wagons, whereas we just had our backpacking backpacks.
Jacqueline and the kids were very excited about the island foxes that were hanging around the campsites. We had to be very careful with food storage because of that as many of them had turned into scavengers. We set up our tent in a wooded area, ate some lunch, then we were finally off for our hike.

We continued on through the campground until we ran into the Scorpion Canyon trail. This trail followed a creek for a bit and then climbed steeply out of the canyon. We were impressed that there were flowers growing along this trail on New Year's Eve as it felt like we had left the winter months for a sunny island getaway. The island reminded me a lot of Kauai with the topography, but the rest of the island was just this grassy, treeless plain with views to the Pacific Ocean on nearly every side. The kids were doing great as Jacqueline was the only one with this attitude of we are not doing anything crazy on this hike.

 I reassured her that it wasn't going to be that bad as we climbed steeply up onto the plateau above. It was amazing how quiet the trail was as we only saw one other hiker on the Scorpion Canyon trail with us. When we got to the junction, she continued on the ridge hike while we instead turned left to head out to Smuggler's Cove. The trail from this point forward would be a "road" although there were no cars and it would be adventurous to bring one on this path. To us, it was a great trail with amazing views. It was muddy for the first mile or so, but the rest of it was just an easy stroll.

I was enjoying using my watch because it constantly gave me a view of how close we were to the end of the trail. It helped us to gauge our time so that when we were looking at getting back from Smuggler's Cove, we knew we would have enough daylight. Eventually the trail lost a lot of elevation, but soon we were amongst the olive trees and island foxes at this beautiful rocky beach with only one other group of young people to share it with. We only had a few minutes to enjoy it because of the lack of sunlight this time of year, so we threw some rocks, snapped some pictures, and then were off to climb back up the trail. Everyone was enjoying themselves and the hike back up was not too bad.

We were able to take a different road/trail back that took us to different incredible views and down a steep path back into Scorpion Cove. We found our way back to the campsite where we spent the evening playing games, eating food, and reading books. It was not the partying that many people do on New Year's Eve, but it was actually really enjoyable. By the time that we went to sleep at 9:30ish, the whole campground seemed pretty quiet. We were able to get a good night's sleep to do some more hiking in the morning. We got a leisurely start because it was still kind of chilly in the morning.

We ate some breakfast, but left our tent set up, to head out on the Potato Road to Potato Harbor. It seemed a strange name for a harbor, but we ran into exactly the reason for the name along the hike. It was a Jerusalem Cricket which is also named sometimes a Potato Bug. This one seemed particularly large and it turns out that they are a favorite food source of the foxes. The road was awesome with once again no cars and we did not expect to see any with how challenging it would be to drive upon these roads. It was a steep climb to get up to the plateau, but from there it was a flat walk out to the viewpoint of Potato Harbor.

I am sure there was a way, but there was no trail down to the little cove that was below. Still the view was amazing. I snapped some pictures while Jacqueline and the kids hung back due to the drop offs. We took the road back but veered to the left along the coast until we made it to the trail out to Cavern Point. This trail was right along the edge, so Jacqueline made sure that we were holding hands with the kids. I let Zyla not hold hands quite often though because she was self aware enough to not have to worry about.

We ended up being far ahead of Jacqueline and Conrad as we eventually made it out to Cavern Point. It was a nice spot, but this is where all the day trippers go that just visit the islands for a couple of hours, so it was more impacted. We continued around Cavern Point until we found another steep trail that dropped us down into Scorpion Cove. We got in about 15 miles of hiking over two days with the kids, so we felt like we maximized our opportunities in the middle of winter. Now it was time to head back to camp, pack up the tent, eat the rest of the food, and then head back to the harbor for our boat back.

The return trip was much more boisterous as the sea sickness was not overtaking the passengers, but we once again got to see some dolphins swimming right next to the boat. When we arrived back in Ventura Harbor, we had an exciting drive through the night to Barstow to look forward to. I wondered when I booked this trip whether the costs and the driving would be worth it. Seeing the Channel Islands was such a unique experience that I was glad I shelled out the money to see this amazing place. It was definitely worth a visit and with the miles of trails that were still left to explore, I am sure that some day I will have to return.