We decided for our first visit, we’d head to Santa Cruz Island, the largest of all the Channel Islands and the easiest to get to. We booked our roundtrip ferry tickets with Island Packers, leaving from Ventura and stopping at Scorpion Cove. Early that morning, we parked our car and checked in for our ferry boarding tickets.
The ferry ride was beautiful (but windy, so bring a jacket!), as we saw pods of dolphins along the way. They loved playing in the wake from the boat — it was amazing to see them up close and we were blown away by how many of them were out there.
A few volunteer NPS guides join each of the ferry rides, and offer helpful information and fun facts — most of Channel Islands National Park is underwater, and is known for kelp forests and a robust marine sanctuary.
The ferry ride took slightly over an hour, and we arrived on Santa Cruz Island at about 10:30am. For our first visit, we wanted to focus on hiking and explore the island from the land, but you can book a kayak tour in advance, or when you first check in for the ferry back in Ventura.
With our return ferry leaving at 4pm, we decided to squeeze in a full day hike to see as much as possible, and in an attempt to make sure we wouldn’t get back so early that we’d be stuck waiting for the boat.
THE HIKE:
We chose to do the Montañon Ridge clockwise, which is a 9.4 mile loop, and we loved it. You first catch a great view of Catalina Island (weather permitting), passing by an abandoned oil well, and hike up along the ridge for amazing views.
We made a pit-stop to eat our homemade sandwiches overlooking Chinese Harbor, before making our way down with ocean views and stopping at the Potato Harbor Overlook.
With so much recent rain and greenery, we felt like we were transported to Ireland or Scotland in conjunction with the white cliffs and ocean views, and this was all just an hour’s drive from Los Angeles (not counting the ferry, but hey, that was a great part of the adventure).
On this particular day, we loved having the trail mostly to ourselves, and hear that it’s pretty common for most visitors. They’re limited by ferry capacity and only run so many boats a day, so the human impact is thankfully minimal and most visitors tend to walk around the easy trails or do a bit of kayaking, and aren’t up for the longer hike.
On the way down, we noticed we were running a bit ahead of schedule and decided to add a quick little point to our hike and popped up to check out Cavern Point before heading down along the coastline to the Visitor’s Center.
The historic building was small and a bit cramped, but great to stop in to learn about the history of the island, people who have lived there and the ecological journey that the island has taken, from being infested with pigs to finally returning the island back to its native state.
TIPS & TRICKS:
We had a rare cloudy/ rainy day that kept us from getting burnt, providing great photos of the clouds moving through the hills. There’s little tree coverage on the hike, so I can imagine the sun beaming down hot on a clear day, so be prepared! Bring sunglasses, sunscreen, and layers for the different temps.
There are also no place to buy food (other than on the ferry), anything you forget or garbage bins for that matter, so please be sure to pack-in and pack-out! There are porta-potties once you arrive from the ferry, but otherwise you’re on your own.
We still had just under an hour to spare before the ferry departed, and we read in the visitor’s center that the island foxes are often found near the campgrounds. We decided to go for a walk to check out the area to evaluate “future camping potential” and lo and behold, we managed to find two island foxes at the upper campground.
They were cute and curious, before scurrying off to scavenge from what I’m sure were crumbly snacks left behind at the campsites. This ended up being the perfect amount of time to burn before heading back to the ferry area, despite it starting to rain as soon as the foxes disappeared.
It still was a fantastic sunset ferry ride back to Ventura, spotting the same pod of dolphins we saw on our trip out
This was an incredibly fun day-trip! A quick one-hour drive from LA to Ventura and another hourlong ferry ride transports you into an entirely different world.
We can’t wait to come back to explore the other islands in the future.
