
Inspiration point on Anacapa Island looking towards Santa Cruz Island
If you've driven up Highway 101 from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara you've probably seen the dark shadowy shapes hugging the horizon offshore. These are the Channel Islands: Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara. For years my friend Barbara has been suggesting a visit. Last weekend we finally made it.
These beautiful remote islands are one of the least visited of the National Parks. Surprisingly, not one of the several Los Angelenos to whom I mentioned the islands had ever been. A few of my LA friends even asked, "what are the Channel Islands?"... (I started to write something snarky here but thought I shouldn't get too harsh and NYC on their sunshine-soaked brains.)
We took the daylong trip with Islandpackers out of Venture Harbor. Anacapa Island (above) is about an hour's boat ride away with frequent stops along the way to look at dolphins and two grey whales. The islands are currently uninhabited except by park rangers. According to archeological evidence, the Chumash Indians lived on the island for thousands of years.
A 13,000 year old skeleton named the Arlington Man was found on Santa Rosa Island in 1959 by Philip Orr(!), curator of anthropology and natural history at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. These remains are the earliest dated human remains to be found in North or South America. Orr also discovered skeletons of pygmy mammoths that were endemic to the islands during the Pleistocene era.
East Anacapa Island is about a mile long and 1/4 mile wide, flat on top and ringed by cliffs. From the lighthouse you can see from one end to the other at Inspiration point. The other Anacapa islets aren't usually visited since they hold the nesting grounds of endangered California brown pelicans who will reportedly abandon their nests when humans intrude.
Kelp beds at the bottom of the sea cliffs

Many of the island's plants such as the wild cucumber or man-root (
Marah macrocarpus) and the giant coreopsis (
Coreopsis giantea) are native or endemic to the Channel Islands.

Western gulls nest all over the island, often in the top of the giant coreopsis
With only seven people, our tour felt like an episode of Gilligan's Island. We had the entire place to ourselves. Once you climb the metal stairs from the boat up to the treeless plateau, the 1 1/2 miles of trails are flat and easy.
Two members of our party scan the ocean for grey whales

The ground-hugging leaves of gumplant (Grindelia camporum v. bracteosum) are covered in a sticky substance

A picnic on top of Inspiration Point on Anacapa Island

The steep cliffs are covered with lichens and coreopsis

At another cove, you could see and hear sea lions on the small rocky beach on the left

The only access to the island is from this stairway and boat dock

Looking south, there is no land between this cliff edge and Antarctica