Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park Overview

There have been few places I have been over the years that leave me with the same feeling. That the place is so magical it risks ruining me for travel to most places. The Azores, Outer Hebrides in Scotland and Chiang Mai are a few other places I put in those categories. After the last five days Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park easily joins this list. 

 Pier photo courtesy of our friend Dan Hull

From the moment you get dropped off by the boat at the pier to the time you get back on to go home, the place is pure magic. The island itself has a full-time population of zero and is stunning beautiful in every direction. There are 15 total campsites. So you get to experience being fairly alone with nature while on the island. There is drinkable water at the campsite but besides that you have what you hike in on your back the 1.5 miles from the campsite to the pier.

     Looking down into the valley at the campground 

There is a ton of nature to experience in every direction: whales, sea lions, seals, tons of small foxes that would stroll through the campsites as if they owned the place and all kinds of birds.  Coming in spring the wildflowers,  succulents and cactii native to the island are all in bloom. If you need some shade there is a part of the island that has a small forest of Torrey and other variety of pine trees while most of the rest of the island is treeless. 

The nearest beach is absolutely stunning. Miles and miles of relatively untouched sand. Sand so soft and fine that it is hard to get off of you. Large undamaged shells everywhere. The water while clear is freezing cold. We frankly lucked out with the weather as it ended up being much warmer every day than forecasted. The downside is we didn't take any swimming suits because it looked too cold to even consider it. This didn't stop us though. The warmest day we stripped down to our underwear and beyond and enjoyed sunbathing and getting partially in the ocean to cool off. There was no one around for miles so why not!  We had a few seals come by to curiously check us out, reminding us that we were likely somewhat of an oddity and curiosity to some of the creatures that lived there as well. 

The campsite itself was quite nice. Each spot had basically a small 3 sided shelter to protect your tent from the wind. It had a built in food storage box to keep the food away from the foxes and mice that inhabit the island. And a picnic table. There was also potable water and flush toilets as well as a small sink to rinse dishes. It really was a very nice setup and made going 5 days without a shower much more bearable. The campsite sits over a canyon overlooking the ocean and the views from our campsite were spectacular. On the calmer nights you could easily hear the ocean repetitively crash into the ocean as you went to sleep. 

   Dan relaxing at our campsite 

As I mentioned earlier we lucked out on the weather. Originally a week out it looked like we were looking at 60h/40l types of weather days. By the time we got there that was more like 70h/50l. What a difference those 10 degrees make! There was one night everyone was worried about where 35 mph winds were forecast and it did not disappoint. The winds howled down the canyon all night with some gusts surely into the 50s and 60s. We put our tent back in our wind shelter and survived unscathed with only a tent full of dirt to show for damage. Some others, especially one pair who mysteriously decided to pitch their tent next to the shelter instead of in it, did not fair so well and had their tent completely destroyed. I have never camped in wind like that and all I can say is I was so thankful there was some shelter from the wind as it was miserable enough as is. 

    Our neighbor's poor tent

For hikers this island offers a lot. If you want to climb to the top of a mountain, hike along the beach for miles or hike down a beautiful canyon this island offers all of that. Over our 5 days I hiked a bit more than 30 miles. I think most people here hiked more than that with a few people logging nearly 20 mile days. 

    Picture from the Torrey Pines hike

Let's touch on how to do this trip if you are interested and some tips. This trip is an incredible value, especially if you already have backpacking/lightweight camping gear. The campsites are $15/night and must be reserved through recreation.gov, the official park service site. We used Island Packers to get out here as did everyone else we were with. It is a 2.5-3 hour boat ride each way to get out here from Ventura Harbor. It cost $60 each way per person to transport us and our gear. You can also arrive by private boat or plane (there isn't an airport or anything but a really rough looking dirt landing strip does exist here for the adventurous) but it seemed like everyone all took the same route we did to get out here. So if you are looking for a big adventure and don't want to break the bank this is a good way to do it. Drive to Ventura, CA like we did or fly to LA for cheap and head over.

The biggest other tip I can give is to pack as light as possible. Light and ultralight weight sleeping bags/pads/tent save a lot of weight. You are going to need to save weight for essentials like the two boxes of wine (well the bags out of them anyways) we took. You are going to be dirty so take as little clothing as possible. I wore one pair of pants, one pair of shorts, three shirts and then clean underwear/socks for each day. It was enough. Make sure you take warm clothes as the nights can be cold. We both took a lighter jacket and our winter coat and it was more than enough.

    Trista with her pack on the hike to our campsite 

For food we brought our JetBoil tiny water boiler and brought things you can cook with boiling water. Ramen, instant potatoes and freeze dried backpacker meals. For snacks we brought calorie dense food like nuts, jerky and chocolate. For water we just brought our one liter reusable water bottles. It was enough considering the available water. We saw some people bringing giant 5 gallon jugs of water out here. It is just asking to have a bad time getting to the campsite. You do pack all your own trash off the island so one durable trash bag is needed.

Other miscellaenous stuff we took included a ultralight solar light, solar chargers, a lightweight speaker, some cards and some actual paper books. There is no phone service or electricity so plan accordingly. A towel or two to put down on the beach to sit or lay on is probably not a bad idea also.  For dishes we brought one reusable plastic bowl/fork each and ate every meal out of it. Try and plan out your food day by day so you take the right amount of food plus maybe a day or so extra just in case. We ended up with almost everything consumed by the time we left which made our backpacks considerably lighter by the time we left. 

That's it for the basics of our stay.  A more detailed day by day post to follow.  Let us know if you have any questions!