Elizabeth BoatmanFor some years now Channel Islands National Park, just off the coast of Southern California, has peaked my curiosity and I decided it was time to do something about it. People visit the other parks in California but I have as yet to meet anyone who has been to these islands. Why?
To begin with the park is relatively young, reaching full park status in 1980. More importantly the islands are remote and isolated. The park service has one concessionaire, Island Packers, who provide boat service once or twice a day to the five islands. Let me clarify that statement. You can’t go to all five islands on one boat. You must choose your destination. One boat may go to Santa Cruz but a different boat does the Santa Rosa Island trip.
Still, there must be someone going to those islands because I was unable to get the trip I wanted and settled for the Island Wildlife Cruise. My fellow passengers and I boarded the Vanguard at Oxnard under gray skies and a misty rain. Not a propitious start to my visit.
Our boat was headed for Anacapa, the smallest island. We were a sorry lot as we sat in the wind and rain on the upper deck. We all hoped for sun and a chance to see some birds and whales. Our suffering was rewarded when the skipper slowed for a pod of common dolphin feasting on anchovy. The scene was really spectacular. There were a lot of dolphin but they surfaced and then dove again so quickly I couldn’t keep up with them to get a photograph. The image below is a composite of three of the best images. It doesn’t come close to doing justice to the scene.
It took about an hour to cross the 12 miles to Anacapa which is a rather flat island with a lighthouse and a few buildings set upon high cliffs. With the exception of Frenchy’s Cove there isn’t much beach area anywhere on the island. It’s all inhospitable cliffs. We docked in a cove where a Ranger met us. Passengers climbed out the stern and then scaled up flights of stairs to reach the island’s plain. Over half the passengers left the boat at this dock along with tents, stoves, backpacks and, yes, babies.
We continued to cruise along the length of the island, or islets. Long and thin, Anacapa is really three sections and only takes up about one square mile of land. We saw lots of gulls since this is the main nesting area for the Western Gull. There were scores of them flying around. I had a Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.05-5.6 lens with me. I thought we would circumnavigate the island and get in close enough to see the birds. Not so. We remained quite far offshore.
Once we reached West Anacapa we turned for home. Gulls and pelicans continued to follow the boat. They swooped by like fighter planes which made them another difficult subject to photograph. I saw this bird just as it headed for the clouds!
There were more boats in the channel as we headed for shore and the harbor seals were resting on the pier as we pulled in. Next time I’m going to book early and land on one of these islands!
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