The Glorious Isolation of Santa Barbara Island

One benefit of publicly displaying my enthusiasms on this site is that occasionally someone decides to indulge me. Having enjoyed my account of a day trip to Santa Rosa Island, Explorers Club member Dennis Houghton invited me on a similar excursion to Santa Barbara Island last month. The island is part of the Channel Islands National Park, but Island Packers hasn’t run trips there since 2016, when a storm destroyed the pier at Landing Cove, so Houghton organized a charter of one of the company’s boats.

The day started like any other visit to the archipelago, with our group lining up at Ventura Harbor around 8 a.m. Santa Barbara Island is about sixty miles south of Ventura Harbor, and the journey took three hours (a big longer than if we had been on one of the fleet’s catamarans). It was an uneventful crossing, with a sole wildlife stop to view seabirds, sea lions, and dolphins engaging in a feeding frenzy over a bait ball. Finally, the island appeared on the horizon.

We were transferred by skiff to the island in groups of six, and while disembarking was a little dicey because of the swells, the slippery rock, and the pier remnants that you have to duck under, we all managed with aplomb. Our reward was the group of young sea lions frolicking in the surf and poking their heads up, like meerkats or synchronized swimmers, to observe our arrival.

Just one square mile, Santa Barbara Island is the smallest of the eight Channel Islands, which was good because we only had two hours to explore it. My husband, Adam, and I headed southwest to Signal Peak, then back to North Peak and Arch Point before returning to Landing Cove.

The weather started out gray, but that was a boon, given that there aren’t many plants larger than coreopsis, which was in its least interesting phase.

Don’t underestimate its strength, though.

The plant pictured below was everywhere, including in the middle of the trails, where I made efforts to avoid stepping on it—only to learn later that it’s a “noxious invasive species” (in a friend’s words) called crystalline ice plant.

The hiking is very different from our mainland trails, or even Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa, in that you’re very exposed. As a result, you really do feel like you’re in the middle of the ocean.

And yet we didn’t particularly feel like we were alone, because we’d often see members of our group off in the distance.

Near Arch Point, the land turns lunar in appearance. Adam and I ventured off the trail, entirely by accident—on an island with few visitors, the trail isn’t always well defined.

Only infrequently was there something to look at besides the view. The manmade markers came as a surprise.

We poked into the visitors’ center, just because it was there, and added our names to the handful in the guest book.

And before we knew it, we were back on the boat. On the way to the island, we had gone straight there, but on the return, we detoured to Santa Cruz Island to pick up some passengers. As a result, and because the water was rather rough for a spell, the return trip took four and a half hours. I still have five islands on my to-do list, but the island-to-boat ratio had me wishing yet again that someone will one day restart commercial charters to the national park. Until then, your best hope for a visit to Santa Barbara Island is that the National Park Service rebuilds the pier.

On the bright side, we did get to witness a SpaceX launch.

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Previous travel coverage:
••• Hiking From Hotel to Hotel in the Dolomites
••• A Ramble Through the English Countryside
••• Notes from Up North: Healdsburg, Mendocino, and San Francisco 
••• There’s More to Peru Than Machu Picchu
••• On a Backroads Tour of New Zealand’s South Island
••• Navigating the North Island of New Zealand
↓↓↓ Don’t Be So Quick to Write Off Phoenix
••• The Most Magical City in the World
••• One and Done in Sedona
••• A Proper Visit to Santa Monica
••• A Quickie in San Francisco
••• Dipping a Toe Into Southern Corsica
••• The Exquisite Luxury of Taking Paris for Granted
••• Santa Rosa Island in One Day
••• Soaking Up History at Castle Hot Springs
••• Driving Through the Heart of Hokkaido
••• Tokyo Is a World Unto Itself
••• Paso Robles, Pinnacles National Park, and Beyond
••• A Review of the Inn at Mattei’s Tavern
••• Another Quickie in L.A.
••• Sitting Pretty at the One & Only Mandarina
••• The Mysteries of Istanbul
••• Palm Springs: Midweek at the Oasis
••• Exploring the Sea Caves of Santa Cruz Island
••• A Summer Swing Through the Northeast
••• Why Is Everyone Going to Portugal?
••• Patagonia Made Easy
••• A Quickie in L.A.
••• From Penthouse to Pavement in Mexico City
••• Do Greek Islands Live Up to the Fantasy?
••• Splendid Isolation at Utah’s Lodge at Blue Sky
••• Three Reasons to Visit Paso Robles Now

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