Channeling My Inner Explorer on Santa Cruz Island

Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Grand Canyon. Yosemite. Yellowstone. Rocky Mountain. Olympic. Zion. Grand Teton. Acadia. These are only a few of the crown jewels of the United States’ National Park Service. They are among the most well-known, well-loved, and well-visited of the parks, their names alone conjuring visions of vast unspoiled natural beauty and their splendor transcending geographical borders.

Channel Islands National Park doesn’t possess the same level of instant name recognition as its more famous cousins but it’s equally as deserving of a place in the spotlight. It is comprised of five of the group of eight Channel Islands off the southern California coast and is nicknamed the “Galapagos Islands of North America” for its variety of flora and fauna that you won’t find anywhere else.

Getting there

You can’t get to Santa Cruz, the largest of the five islands within the park, by plane; unless you’re coming by private boat, your only escort is Island Packers, an adventure outfitter based out of Ventura and Oxnard. It’s early in the morning in Ventura when I board the Islander, the small vessel that will cross the channel. Once onboard, I meet Marty, a friendly docent with NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries who’s spent the past four years making the journey to the park and preparing first-time visitors for the landscape they’re about to encounter.

“This is the usual,” he says, chuckling and smiling, when I ask if the lilting and bouncing of the small vessel is characteristic of a channel crossing. Today, he estimates, the waves are five to ten feet tall–the prow of the boat rides the crest of each wave before descending into the valley, the crash of hull against water sending great sprays of ocean mist over the deck, where I’ve decided to sit on the hourlong journey to the island. I should go inside but fear and exhilaration glue me to the spot and I remain there until Santa Cruz comes slowly into view through a veil of fog. It feels as though we’ve traveled through time when we land at the small pier at Scorpion Anchorage on the north side of the 22-miles long island.

Northeastern Santa Cruz Island

My first impression of the island is a mix of confusion and surprise. From my present vantage point at Scorpion Anchorage, Santa Cruz seems like a series of large hills covered in golden-hued grass and dotted by scrubby tufts of dark green shrubs, not at all what I’m expecting. I am anxious to explore, so when Marty offers a short guided hike along the Cavern Point trail, I jump at the opportunity. After a short mandatory briefing at the pier, visitors to the island disperse, some hoping to make it to the other side of the island at Smuggler’s Cove and back within the roughly six hours the day-trippers will spend on the island.

Seven of us follow the white-haired docent as he points out various plants along the path. A eucalyptus tree here, introduced to the island by early settlers; a clump of yellow-flowered black mustard there; and the tiny red-budded leaves of the invasive iceplant everywhere, pleasing to the eye but difficult to eradicate. The packed dirt trail takes us up to the Cavern Point overlook, a picturesque, rugged cliff where mossy, salty crags of volcanic earth meet the teal-tinged blue of the Pacific Ocean. We linger here for a while, breathing deeply of the moist sea air before returning along the remainder of the well-marked and fairly easy trail, spotting a trio of island foxes frolicking on a distant hill.

Solo hiking Smuggler’s Cove to Scorpion Canyon Loop

Back at the island’s visitor center near Scorpion Anchorage, I pocket my own map of the island and decide to set out along the Smuggler’s Cove trail to hook into Scorpion Canyon Loop. The dusty trail inclines moderately along a hillside that’s neither too step nor too long as I begin a portion of the trail. High above Scorpion Anchorage, the landscape is quiet save for the whoosh of the occasional wind traveling through the short golden grasses and across the  mounds of earth that comprise the island’s highest peak. The Montañon Ridge looms over Scorpion Canyon, at times dark, ominous, and cloaked in fog; at other times luminous and bathed in light.

The sharp tips of my hiking poles dig into the hard earth of the trail in an uneven rhythm as I stop to catch my breath or to lift my camera lens to capture yet another facet of the island: a lizard here, sunning itself upon a rock; a rusted piece of neglected farm equipment there. Thick, prickly stands of purple-flowered milk thistle, coupled with the nearly treeless and shadowy landscape, remind me of time spent in Scotland’s Highlands.

Nearly two hours after starting out on my own, traversing over dirt road and rocky trail along a path lined by the pale blush of trumpet-shaped morning glories and tiny bouquets of island buckwheat, I begin the descent to Scorpion Anchorage. Stumbling past the campsite at the Scorpion Canyon Trail’s upper loop, I’m struck by how much the community of colorful tents looks like a settlement. There’s a hammock, stretched between the trunks of a tree and clothes drying on a line. Aside from the brightly colored high-tech materials of the tents, it feels like what the island might have looked like a century ago.

My legs feel like lead as I trudge the last half mile back to the visitor center where I take time to view the exhibits on the island’s history and its unique plant- and wildlife. I should be taking it all in, but I’m not. Instead, I’m kicking myself for not spending a night camping here. Santa Cruz is natural, romantic, undeveloped, and distant, the perfect place to escape for a day or two. I’d like to return sometime and stay long enough to watch the sun set, pitch my tent beneath the stars, and wake up in a place that feels, somehow, like I’m still dreaming.

More about Santa Cruz Island

Need to know: The National Park owns and manages only 24% of island on its eastern portion. The other 76% on the western portion is managed by the Nature Conservancy; you’ll need a special permit from the organization to land and hike there.

Logistics: The boat trip costs $56 round-trip from Ventura to Scorpion Anchorage. Wear layers and prepare for anything as the weather on the island can change from hour to hour. Although you can purchase food and drinks on the boat, there are no concessions on park property. Potable water is scarce, so be sure to bring enough for your stay. The trail map for Santa Cruz Island can be found here.

Wildlife: The population of the island fox, endemic to six of the eight Channel Islands, had declined to the point of being endangered until the late 1990s when an ambitious plan was put in place to increase their populations on the island.

Scorpion talk: Scorpion Anchorage. Scorpion Canyon. All this mention of scorpions might lead you to believe there’s a healthy population on the island, but Marty swears he hasn’t seen a single one in the four years he’s been volunteering.

 Which aspect of Santa Cruz Island appeals to you most? Have you ever been? Would you consider visiting?