With air travel limited due to COVID, we spent several long weekends in the Summer of 2020 exploring our own backyard in Southern California. One such trip was to Santa Cruz Island, part of the Channel Islands National Park just off the SoCal coast, where we planned an overnight backpacking trip. We had visited several of the islands for diving but had never spent time on land. We booked transportation via Island Packers, which runs regular service across the roughly 20-mile-wide Santa Barbara Channel from Ventura to Santa Cruz Island. The boat operated at less than half capacity and required masks at all times, so we felt good about their COVID protocols. On the trip, the friendly crew pointed out sea lions crowded on a buoy and common dolphins playing in the boat’s wake.
Upon arrival to the island at Prisoners Harbor, we got a quick briefing from a ranger, strapped on our packs, and were off to the backcountry Del Norte campsite (go to recreation.gov to make reservations at one of the four sites). We were impressed by the sweeping (although invasive) fields of yellow fennel plants on the island, and views over the Pacific with the mainland coastline in the distance. We also spotted two native island foxes hiding in a shrub who appeared to be unfazed by our presence. After a moderate 3.5-mile hike, we arrived at our campsite, set up our tent and had a quick lunch of tuna tortilla rolls.
We grabbed our lighter packs and jumped back on the Del Norte trail to get to Chinese Harbor, just over 4 miles out. The path wound along the northern part of the island until we got to the junction to the harbor. Here we had to descend almost 1000 feet along switchbacks to make our way down to sea level. The rocky beach at Chinese Harbor was really scenic, and since it’s a 15-mile round trip hike from Prisoners Harbor, the only other people there were another group staying at our campground. We hung out for an hour admiring this rugged stretch of isolated coastline in viewing distance of America’s second largest city. On a future trip, we plan to stay 2 nights so we can spend more time on this isolated beach and will bring sandals to navigate our way over the rocks into the ocean.
After a long day of hiking, we got back to camp just after 6 PM and watched the island scrub-jays and California quails rummaging in the trees. While we prepared dinner (freeze dried pasta primavera) and witnessed a magical sunset over the island, a fox waited nearby for campers to leave their picnic tables so he could scavenge for food. While he was a little down on his luck, we were lucky that comet NEOWISE happened to be visible during our stay. Shortly after dusk, the clear evening revealed a sky full of stars with no interference from city lights. We were delighted to stare at the stars, follow the comet and marvel at the milky way for over an hour before calling it a night.
We took our time packing up camp the next morning to enjoy the views over the water. For breakfast, we had oatmeal with trail mix sprinkled in. And although Brittany was looking forward to some coffee, we decided to skip it to make sure we had enough water for the rest of the trip.
The alternate way back to Prisoners Harbor, around 4.5 miles via the Navy Road, initially took us up an unexpectedly steep climb to over 1300 feet elevation. Luckily some fog rolled in making it a more pleasant hike up. Eventually this put us on the top of the mountain ridge where the fog burned off and revealed views of the island’s southern coast. Arriving back at Prisoners Harbor just after 1 PM, we enjoyed lunch on the beach – more tuna tortilla rolls and, as a treat, almond butter chocolate tortilla rolls. We then had a few hours to relax, soak up the sun and jump in the water until our ride back to the mainland departed at 4 PM.
We were pleasantly surprised by the scenic beauty and sense of isolation of Santa Cruz Island and will definitely return to the Channel Islands. If you’re visiting Prisoners Harbor, you need to bring all your own water; we brought a gallon each for our 2-day adventure and probably could have used a half gallon more each. There are storage boxes at the harbor where you are able to leave extra items that you don’t want to carry on the hilly backcountry trek.