The Channel Islands are a group of islands off the southern California coast that are spread over a 160-mile region. The national park consists of 250,000 acres of land and ocean environment. The primary visitor center for the park is located on the harbor in Ventura, California although there is a small visitor center at Scorpion Ranch on Santa Cruz Island and another in Santa Barbara on the mainland.
There are eight islands in the Channels, and five of them – Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Barbara – as well as the waters within one nautical mile of each of these islands make up the national park. The park is home to more than 2,000 species of plants and animals along with a number found nowhere else on earth due to the isolation, over thousands of years, of these islands from the mainland. The Channel Islands are sometimes labeled as the “Galapagos of North America” because of the evolutionary changes that have occurred in some of the species found here.
Channel Islands National Park is one of the lesser visited parks in the NPS system. It logged only 409,630 visitors in 2021 ranking it 47th out of the 63 national parks in terms of visitation despite being close to the highly populated Los Angeles area. This is likely due to a lack of easy accessibility of the islands.
There are no amenities on the islands, and they are reached by boat crossing of the sometimes rough Santa Barbara Channel. Once on the island, the only form of transportation is your feet or a kayak. All food and gear you will need for your stay must be brought with you to the islands. Island Packers is the park concessionaire that ferries visitors between the mainland and the islands.
You can visit the park either as a day trip or have an extended primitive camping stay. My first attempt to visit the park in February 2022 was unsuccessful due to high seas and strong winds which prohibited channel crossings for two days. I was able to make a day trip to Santa Cruz Island at the beginning of April 2022 despite another bout of rough seas which made the channel crossing something like an amusement park ride! On the boat, we were warned that if we were going to throw up, we should do it over the side of the boat…and yes, there were people who got seasick. Fortunately, I was not among them. The goal of my trip was to find and photograph the island foxes that live only on the Channel Islands.
Santa Cruz Island is the largest island in the national park. It is 22 miles long and between two and six miles wide for a total of 61,972 acres, A central valley (fault line) separates the volcanic rocks of the north from the sedimentary rocks of the south. The eastern end of the island (about 24% of its total area) is managed by the National Park Service while the remainder belongs to the Nature Conservancy and is off limits to park visitors.
After docking, we were met by the island’s only park ranger for a required orientation during which we were reminded that we could not collect any “souvenirs” such as rocks, plants, or cultural artifacts (the islands are an ancestral home to the Chumash people), nor could we smuggle any of the cute foxes off the island in our backpacks!
Backpacks were not to be left unattended as the local ravens have learned to open the zippers in seconds and love to steal shiny items such as keys. Any food not being carried in a backpack or cooler was to be left in the fox-proof boxes (similar to bear boxes) found in the campground and near the ranch. We also were instructed not to feed the wildlife or try to pet any foxes.
On this day, the water was too rough for kayaking so most of us left to hike the trails. We were given strict instructions to be back in time for the departure of our boat to the mainland, or we would be spending the night on the island. Those who were camping had to cart all their gear half a mile from the dock to the Scorpion Canyon Campground which has 31 sites available by prior reservation only.
I chose to climb up onto the bluff above Scorpion Ranch for hiking along the cliffs to Cavern Point and then out to Potato Harbor (red annotated area and magnified detail box).
Spring is an ideal time to explore the island. It is very green with many wildflowers. In contrast, most of the year, the island vegetation is primarily brown. Summer and fall are probably better for kayaking, snorkeling and swimming while winter is great for whale watching. The geology of this part of the island is volcanic.
The views from atop the cliffs were spectacular. However, on this day, the winds were raging. Gusts in excess of 35 mph made being anywhere near the cliff edges dangerous so I cut my intended hike to Potato Harbor short opting to explore lower elevation areas on my mission to find an island fox.
This photo, taken from the bluff above Scorpion Ranch, shows Scorpion Rock in the middle ground and the island of Anacapa in the distance.
The Channels were not always a group of separated islands. When the sea level was much lower during the last Ice Age, the four northern islands (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa) existed as a single land mass called Santarosae which was about 78-miles long. As the continental ice sheets melted between 9,000 and 11,000 years ago, sea levels rose about 100 meters (328 feet), submerging parts of this land mass. The current day northern Channel Islands are remnants of this super-island.
The Channel Islands have been home to a number of unique species of plants and animals over the ages. Remains of an ancient pygmy mammoth was first found on Santa Rosa. These pony-sized mammoths were probably an evolved form of the Columbian mammoths that roamed the mainland. Researchers theorize that between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago a small group of Columbian mammoths, used their snorkel-like trunks and buoyant body mass to swim to Santarosae which at the time was only separated from the mainland by a 6-mile channel. It is thought that these mammoths were capable of making such a trip because today’s elephants, the living relatives of mammoths, are excellent swimmers having been documented as swimming distances as great as 23 miles to reach areas of ripening fruit and green vegetation. Elephants can detect the odor of food sources over very long distances and are attracted to them. It is thought that the mainland was being overgrazed, and the odor of the fresh vegetation of Santarosae could have attracted them to make the voyage. Pygmy mammoth fossils have been found on San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz with the greatest concentration of remains on Santa Rosa. These mammoths ranged from 4-8 feet tall at the shoulder and probably weighed about 2,000 pounds. Compare this to the massive size of the Columbian mammoth which could be as tall as 14 feet at the shoulder with a weight of 20,000 pounds. The pygmy mammoth probably resulted from insular dwarfism which can occur on isolated islands where resources are limited causing size shrinkage over generations. The pygmy mammoth along with other unique species that have inhabited these isolated islands have made them natural laboratories for the study of evolution.
The Island Fox
The island fox is a distant relative of the California gray fox found on the mainland. It is not known how foxes came to the islands – whether they swam, were passengers in the canoes of the Chumash or hitched a ride some other way. It is known that these foxes were considered sacred to the Chumash.
Since island resources were limited and fluctuated year by year, these foxes had to adapt their culinary tastes to a variety of food sources including plants, insects, lizards and island deer mice. Their diminutive size likely came about as an environmental adaptation.The smaller the animal, the less caloric intake it needs for survival. Smaller foxes that were proficient at locating things that could serve as food sources were more likely to survive and reproduce during lean years. An example of survival of the fittest.
There are six sub-species of island fox, each endemic to a specific island. The largest of these foxes is found on Santa Catalina (not part of the national park) while the smallest inhabit Santa Cruz. These foxes are significantly smaller than their California gray fox ancestors, at about one third their size. Island foxes are one of the smallest canid species known.
Island fox typically have shoulder heights of 12-13 inches, body lengths of 19-20 inches and weigh 4-5 pounds. They are about the size of a house cat. California gray foxes commonly have body lengths of 30-45 inches and weigh in the range of 8-15 pounds.
Gray foxes, are nocturnal, hunting almost exclusively at night to avoid predators. In contrast, island foxes, which have no natural predators, are active during daylight hours. Although their peak activity occurs at dawn and dusk, I had high hopes of success in my quest.
The ranger told us there were two types of foxes, the hard-working ones (proud hunters of the wild areas) and the lazy ones (opportunistic foxes looking for easy pickins in the campgrounds). I found both types and spent a couple of hours observing them. These foxes were quite docile and did not seem very wary of humans which made it pretty easy for me to photograph them. All the photos in this post were made possible by cooperative foxes.
It is sobering to think that we almost lost these marvelous creatures forever due to human causes.
From the mid-1800s until about 1987, ranching operations existed on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands which introduced cattle, sheep, pigs and mule deer as well as a host of non-native plants to the environment. Feral pigs and deer were left behind after the cessation of ranching. This coupled with the loss of bald eagle populations from the effects of the pesticide DDT on their reproduction almost resulted in the extinction of the island fox.
After acquiring the islands, The National Park Service began to monitor the populations of the island foxes by trapping them and implanting grain-sized transponder tags. The period from 1994 to 1998 saw a rapid decline in the numbers of foxes. In 1999, fox populations on San Miguel and Santa Rosa had dropped from 450 and 1,500 respectively to only 15 individuals and from about 1,500 to 70 animals on Santa Cruz. The culprit in this decline was determined to be non-native golden eagles that migrated to the islands and became resident breeders after the native bald eagles disappeared. Whereas bald eagles are primarily marine hunters that eat fish, golden eagles prefer to prey on terrestrial animals. It is believed that the larger bald eagles had deterred golden eagles from colonizing the islands. At first, the golden eagles preyed on targets such piglets and deer fawns, but the removal of these non-native species eliminated this primary food source. The swiftness of their flight, sharp talons, having a body mass 4 times that of an island fox, and the daytime foraging habits of the foxes made them easy prey for golden eagles. In 2004, the island fox landed on the endangered species list.
The foxes were not the only species impacted by the invasion of the golden eagle. Foxes are the top predators on the islands, and therefore, a keystone species in the island ecosystem. As fox populations declined, the populations of deer mice and spotted skunks exploded which, in turn, impacted bird populations because these animals forage for eggs. This resulted in a decline in reproduction rates reducing bird populations.
Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. Efforts to save the island fox were successful allowing them to be delisted as an endangered species in 2016. Their resurgence was due to the efforts of the Nature Conservancy, National Park Service and other conservation organizations making it one of the fastest rebounds of any mammal in the history of the Endangered Species Act.
The process of saving the island fox involved the capturing and relocation of all golden eagles to a distant area of northeastern California; reintroduction of bald eagles to the islands; and the capturing and captivity breeding of island foxes until they could be safely released to the wild. These wonderful little foxes are, if nothing else, resilient as their population numbers from 2021 show.
If you are ever in the Ventura area (some options from Santa Barbara), I would encourage you to spend a day visiting one of the islands of the national park.
A roundtrip Island Packers boat crossing from Ventura to Scorpion Anchorage for spending the day on Santa Cruz costs $63 for adults; $58 for seniors 55+; $45 for children age 3-12, and infants are free with reservation (2022 prices). There is no national park entry fee.
Visiting Santa Rosa and Anacapa Islands is still on my list of things to do, and I might even want to spend a few days camping on Santa Cruz. I could never tire of communing with the foxes!
If a visit to the park is not in your near future, this official Channel Islands National Park video will take you on a trip there.
I thoroughly enjoyed your trip and the story!
Thanks. Writing about a trip allows me to remember the experience plus it encourages me to learn things as well.
I would love to visit here. What other type of wildlife did you see? Do any sea mammals use the island as a breeding/stopping ground? How hard was the hiking? I love when you share these adventures.
Yes there is other wildlife. I saw a number of lizards, and there are birds. Scorpion Rock is a protected sea bird sanctuary/nesting site for storm-petrels, pelicans, cormorants, etc. The island scrub jay is another endemic species found, I believe, on only Santa Cruz. I did not see one of these because they tend to hang out in Scorpion Canyon, and I didn’t have time to go there. Harbor seals, sea lions and elephant seals also use the beaches of the islands. As for other mammals, there are island deer mice and spotted skunks. Depending on the time of year you can see whales from the cliff tops. The hike up to the top is a bit steep. You go up about 326 ft in the first .3 miles from Scorpion Ranch to get to the top of the cliff, but hiking along the cliff area is relatively flat. I did not do all 5 miles to Potato Harbor instead doing the Cavern Trail Loop which is 1.9 miles and then a little of the Potato Harbor. I turned back after only a couple tenths of a mile because I was seriously concerned about being blown off the cliffs with some of the wind gusts. It was so windy at Cavern Point that I could not really take any photos. I spent the remainder of the day down in the valley heading passed the lower and upper campgrounds toward Scorpion Canyon looking for foxes. The Scorpion Canyon loop is about 5 miles and would have a steep climb in the direction I was heading. If only doing a day trip, you have to choose what adventure you want to do as you will only have about 5-6 hours on Santa Cruz. The crossing was really rough on the day I went so we did not have any wildlife sightings. When the water is calm, they do stop to observe dolphins and other creatures. Island Packers is very accommodating. When my trip was cancelled in February because the Coast Guard disallowed crossings, the company emailed immediately and refunded my money. Too bad I had already gone to Ventura (I had been supervising a new judge in San Diego on the weekend) the night before the storm came through. Fortunately, there were elephant seals to see north of Ventura so it wasn’t a wasted trip. For the April trip, although the crossing was going to happen, Island Packers emailed everyone and offered to either refund the passage cost or move your reservation if you did not want to experience the rough crossing. Personally, I thought the amusement park style ride was fun…not everyone enjoyed it! In April, there were a lot of different wildflowers, not just the yellow colors seen in the photos I posted. There were pretty purple, pinks and whites at the lower elevations. I would love to go back to Santa Cruz and kayak. You can rent kayaks for use on the island. There is a huge sea cave that is supposed to be awesome.
I grew up in Southern California and never visited these islands nor was I aware of the island fox or pygmy mammoth. This is so interesting!! Thanks!!
Thanks Vickie. It is truly a nice wilderness adventure after only an hour’s boat ride!
Never knew the history of this location. Thank you.