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| Anacapa Island | General Information | San Miguel Island |
| Santa Barbara Island | Santa Cruz Island | Santa Rosa Island |
General Information
There are a number of things to do while enjoying Channel Islands National park. These activities include but are not limited to birding, boating, camping, diving, fishing, hiking, photography, and wildlife watching.
Join a National Park Service ranger to explore Channel Islands's natural and cultural history. Join a ranger to learn about the forces that once shaped this landscape - and continue to do so, see the Calendar Page. Ranger / Naturalist programs include scheduled talks. Programs are provided by park naturalists year-round. These are just some of the ways to discover the diversity of the scenic, natural and historic wonders that comprise Channel Islands National Park.
Visitors to the park may enjoy a variety of recreational opportunities, such as SCUBA diving, snorkeling, swimming, bird watching, kayaking, whale watching, and sailing. On the islands, one may camp, hike, picnic, and explore tidepools, isolated beaches, and rugged canyons. Park naturalists conduct interpretive hikes on the islands throughout the year.
The Mainland Visitor Center features a museum, living tidepool exhibit, three-dimensional models of all the park islands, interactive touch-screen exhibit, a tower with telescopes for viewing the islands, picnic area overlooking the Ventura Harbor, a bookstore, and an outdoor native plant garden. Visitors will enjoy the 25-minute park movie, "A Treasure in the Sea", throughout the day in the auditorium. Every Saturday and Sunday park rangers present free interpretive programs on the natural and cultural resources of the park. Throughout the week, other programs and school visits may be scheduled by calling the visitor center. All facilities are fully accessible.
Every weekend several scheduled programs are offered. Programs include Tidepool Talk at 11:00 am and Recreating at Channel Islands National Park at 2:00 pm. At 3:00 pm, rangers offer programs that look in depth at a variety of topics about the park. Programs are free to the public.
Anacapa Island (699 acres)
Anacapa has hiking trails, a visitor center, lighthouse exhibits, primitive campground, and picnic area and offers opportunities for SCUBA diving, snorkeling, bird watching, fishing , and observing marine mammals.
Anacapa Island is located 14 miles off the coast from Ventura. It is the only Channel Island to retain its American Indian name, derived from the Chumash word, "Eneepah", meaning island of deception or mirage. Ocean waves have eroded the perimeter of the island, creating steep sea cliffs towering hundreds of feet in height and exposing the volcanic origins of air pockets, lava tubes, and sea caves. At the east end of Anacapa a natural bridge has formed in the ocean. Forty-foot high Arch Rock is a trademark of Anacapa and Channel Islands National Park. The facilities on Anacapa overlook the northern channel.
What to See
Sea birds are the most conspicuous wildlife on Anacapa. The largest breeding colony of the endangered California brown pelican is located on West Anacapa. Other sea birds include western gulls and several species of cormorants. The island's rocky shores provide resting and breeding areas for California sea lions and harbor seals. Catch a glimpse of the fascinating undersea world of the kelp forest without even getting wet. During the summer, park rangers dive into the Landing Cove on East Anacapa with a video camera. Visitors can see, through the eye of the camera, what the diver is seeing by watching video monitors on the dock. Pristine tidepools can be explored. Springtime brings colorful flowers, including the strange tree sunflower, or coreopsis, a plant found only on the Channel Islands and a few isolated areas on the mainland. Visit the museum on the island, which houses the original crystal and brass Fresnel lens from the lighthouse.
Frenchys Cove - beach and snorkeling area. Picnicking is permitted.
Diving - Scuba and skin - marine life, caves, coves and shipwrecks. The steamer Winfield Scott grounded and sank off Middle Anacapa in 1853. Photos only may be taken on anything on the island or in the ocean.
What to Do
Camping, hiking, ranger-led interpretive hikes, picnicking, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, swimming, kayaking, bird watching, exploring tidepools, and getting away from the mainland city-congestion are some of the activities you can do on Anacapa Island.
San Miguel Island (9,325 acres)
San Miguel is famous worldwide for its pinniped show. In the winter, as many as 20,000 individual seals and sea lions can be seen at one time on Point Bennett, where they breed and where the pups are born. Other wildlife includes the island fox, a species that is found only on the Channel Islands. Spring and summer the skies are filled with sea and land birds. Fossil bones of the Pleistocene pygmy mammoth, archeological sites of human habitation more than 10,000 years old, and a memorial to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the European discoverer of California, are all found on the island. A geologic feature called the caliche forest attracts many people. This ghost forest was formed by caliche sand castings of plant roots and trunks. Today the plants are long gone, leaving behind the eerie stone replicas. San Miguel wildflowers are spectacular, due to the abundance of fog and moisture.
San Miguel Island has a primitive campground, miles of hiking trails, and beaches and offers Ranger-led hikes, marine-mammal observation, beach exploration, and bird watching. Fifty-five miles off the coast from Ventura, San Miguel Island is the farthest west of the Channel Islands. Because of its location in the open ocean, it is subject to high winds and lots of fog. The island is a tableland of lush grasses and wildflowers, with 27 miles of jagged, rocky coastline dotted with sandy white beaches. The westernmost of these beaches, Point Bennett, is the only place in the world where up to six different species of pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) can be found.
What to See
Go on a ranger led 15 mile round trip hike across the island to Point Bennett to view seals and sea lions.
Hiking and camping permits must be obtained in advance.
Boat landing is permitted only at Cuyler Harbor. Day use of the beach does not require a permit.
Santa Barbara Island (639 acres)
What to See
California sea lions and, in winter, elephant seals breed here. Bird watching is superb. Western gulls, xantus murrelets and brown pelicans nest on the island plateaus and cliffs. Land birds, including barn owls, American kestrels, horned tarks and meadowlarks nest here. Although not commonly seen, the island deer mouse and the island night lizard, a threatened species, live on the island.
There is an abundance of wildlife on Santa Barbara, primarily sea birds and marine mammals. This is a good area to view the underwater life, in the warmer waters of this southernmost island in the park. Snorkeling in the Landing Cove, visitors can see bright sea stars, spiny sea urchins, and brilliant orange garibaldi. Spring rains bring out the flowering plants, such as the tree sunflower, the endemic Santa Barbara Island live forever, shrubby buckwheat, sea blite, and an annual poppy. There is a visitor contact station/museum on the island, with exhibits, dioramas, and murals of the natural and cultural resources.
What to Do
Activities include: hiking on the 6.5 miles of trails, picnicking, camping, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, fishing, swimming, kayaking, and wildlife-watching.
Santa Cruz Island (60,645 acres)
Ninety percent of Santa Cruz Island is owned by the Nature Conservancy. The National Park Service owns the eastern 10%, where visitors may observe wildlife, hike, camp and explore the newest addition to the park. Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the Channel Islands, is 19 miles from Ventura. It is an island of great scenic beauty with diverse land forms--two rugged mountain ranges, deep canyons, a wide central valley, year-round springs and streams, giant sea caves, 77 miles of craggy coastline cliffs, pristine tidepools and expansive beaches.
What to See
Over 650 species of plants and trees are on the island, growing in marshes, grasslands, chaparral, and pine forests. Eight of the plants are endemic, found nowhere else. The island fox is also found on Santa Cruz, as well as over 140 land bird species, marine mammals, and tidepool critters. The largest and deepest known sea cave in the world, Painted Cave, is on Santa Cruz. Evidence of human occupation can be seen in Chumash Indian sites up through Spanish exploration and ranching days.
What to Do
Favorite activities include: hiking, camping, photography, picnicking, snorkeling, swimming, diving, wildlife watching, and exploring tidepools.
Santa Rosa Island (52,794 acres)
What to See
High mountains with deeply cut canyons give way to gentle rolling hills and flat marine terraces. Vast grasslands blanket about 85 percent of the island, yet columnar volcanic formations, extensive fossil beds, and highly colored hill slopes are visible. Rocky terraces on the west end provide superb habitat for intertidal organisms. Harbor and elephant seals breed on the island's sandy beaches. On the eastern tip of the island, a unique costal marsh is among the most extensive freshwater habitats found on any of the Channel Islands. The entire island is surrounded by expanses of kelp beds. Consequently, its surrounding waters serve as an invaluable nursery for the sea life that feeds larger marine mammals and the sea birds that breed along the coastal shores and offshore rocks of all the Channel Islands.
Santa Rosa has several rare plants, some of which are found nowhere else in the world. It also is home to the endemic island fox and the spotted skunk. The sandy beaches and cliffs are breeding and resting areas for sea birds and seals and sea lions. Archeological and paleontological sites are abundant on the island. In 1994, the world's most complete skeleton of a pygmy mammoth, a dwarf species related to the Columbian mammoths, was excavated on Santa Rosa. Today, paleontologists continue to discover more sites with the remains of these Pleistocene-era animals.
What to Do
Hiking, camping, attending naturalist-led hikes, kayaking, fishing, SCUBA diving, snorkeling, surfing, boating and wildlife watching are frequent activities. Along with a ranger one may explore tidepools and midden sites (Chumash trash heaps).
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