One thing that my friend, Mary, really enjoys doing is going hiking. So during our time in California last summer I planned a hike at the Channel Islands National Park on Santa Cruz.
I found this great website and saved the information for our day on the island. Just like going to Alcatraz, the Channel Islands National Park is free to enter, but you have to pay for the boat trip over using Island Packers – the official island concessionaire. Here’s what a day at Santa Cruz in Channel Islands National Park hiking to Smugglers Cove looks like.
Our day started cool and cloudy but the weather on Santa Cruz was hot and sunny, so be prepared to bring layers you can later take off. We took the earliest boat so we’d have maximum time to do the 10 mile hike without having to rush. This was still during the Covid-19 pandemic, so we had to wear masks on the boat the entire time.
One fun surprise was finding a huge pod of dolphins. Our captain steered us over and were able to get close to watch them jump and play in the water around us. We were also on the lookout for whales and other marine life.
When arriving at the island those that were camping waited to one side for their gear to be unloaded from the ship, while we were able to walk right off to the waiting ranger. The National Park Service Ranger gave us the scoop on the wildlife and rules of the island. There were optional guided hikes available, but we set off on our own to find Smugglers Cove.
To start the hike you head left from the central meeting place and head straight up hill. There had been a fire there which meant some areas were marked off to allow for the vegetation to regrow.
We headed to the left to continue on our path across the island towards Smugglers Cove. The path starts to head down towards the coast – remember that what goes down must come back up on the return journey!
We stopped and ate our lunch that we’d brought along and watched the water. The coast was covered in rocks, shells, expired seals and wreckage, so pick your way around carefully if you decide to walk along the shore.
We started to head back the way we came but decided to head off on another branch of the hike since we had plenty of time before our scheduled departure time.
We ended up at the campsites to finish our hike. We debated heading back up the canyon to see the other side of the island, but I didn’t have it in me to go all the way back up and down again after the miles of hiking we’d already done. We refilled our water at the campsites and sat down in the shade hoping to see the gray foxes that live on the Channel Islands.
We were not disappointed. The foxes that live on the Channel Islands are smaller than their mainland counterparts. They’re about the size of a house cat when fully grown. They particularly can be seen hanging around the campsites hoping that some unsuspecting camper will drop a morsel or two, but as always – don’t feed the wildlife. I sat on the ground hoping one would come close. This one really loved Mary’s shoes and came right up to sniff her!
We went to see the museum on the island to learn more about the Channel Islands themselves before heading back to the dock to wait for our scheduled departure time.
We sat by the water enjoying the feel of the wind and the sound of the waves as we rested from our 10+ mile hike around to Smugglers Cove and the Scorpion Canyon Loop on Santa Cruz.
We booked the Ventura to Scorpion’s Cove journeys with Island Packers. At the time of writing this post it’s listed as $63 per person round trip which is also what we paid in July 2021. You choose two separate tickets – outgoing and return. We went with the maximum time available leaving at 8am from Ventura and leaving Scorpion’s Cove at 4:30pm. It turns out we could’ve gotten a bit of an earlier return at maybe 2:30pm or 3:30pm, but we made the most of our downtime at the end of the day by sitting by the shore.
I loved this hike and had hoped to bring Stephen back for it, but the Channel Islands aren’t dog friendly and the cost associated with getting there and back and having Truffles put into doggy daycare for 24 hours made it cost prohibitive for us on our latest trip. I do highly recommend it though as it’s a beautiful day off the coast of California.
[…] addition to the Channel Islands National Park, my friend Mary and I went to another island off the coast of California during our 40th birthday […]