Mid August, 1996, Ernie Garza, Jennifer Townsdin, and I had justfinished attending the National Speleology Society's yearly convention inSalida, Colorado. After the convention, instead of returning to our homein Austin, as most of the Groad Hollow Texans did, we decided to extend ourvacation and keep heading west to the Channel Islands off the coast ofCalifornia.

I had been planning this trip for several years. Often I would askfellow University of Texas Grotto member, Ernie Garza, questions about theislands. Ernie once lived in California. He had been to the ChannelIslands a half a dozen times and had even helped to map many of the seacaves there. It was really not very difficult to talk Ernie and JenniferTownsdin, another experienced caver and U.T. Grotto member, into joining meon this adventure. I also called an old friend and Texas-Ex now living inCalifornia, Rick Lambert, to join our little trek. This turned out to be awonderful trip with the perfect combination of characters. The informationI collected would be a help to anyone planning a trip like this, so I'llpass it on.

The Channel Islands consist of eight islands off the coast of SouthernCalifornia. (These are not to be confused with the Channel Islands foundin the English Channel.) The five northern-most islands and theirsurrounding six nautical miles of ocean comprise the Channel IslandsNational Marine Sanctuary and National Park established in 1980. In thissanctuary, state and federal law forbids the collection of anything andprohibits harassing or disturbing the animals. There are good reasons forthis. The Channel Islands are critical habitat for many animals. Theendangered California Brown Pelican is often found here. The Snowy Plover,which has been proposed for threatened species listing, builds its fragilenests on many beaches from mid-March to mid-September. The sea caves cancontain Pigeon Guillemot and Pelagic Cormorant nests from March to July. Disturbance of these sea birds may cause them to abandon their nests. Fivespecies of pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) breed and live on the ChannelIslands. It is very important to not disturb seals and sea lions on thebeaches during their pupping times from March to July. Twentyseven speciesof whales and dolphins live protected in the surrounding waters. This is alast strong-hold for many animals being chased off of the Californiamainland.

Reservations for camping on these popular National Park Islands arebooked-up at least four months in advance. Camping is allowed incampgrounds on Santa Barbara, Anacapa, San Miguel, and Santa Rosa islands.Restrictions and closures abound. Please refer to the NOAA/NMS Synopsis ofRegulations Map for details.

We chose instead to go to the biggest of the islands, Santa Cruz. It is21 miles long with more sea caves found on its 60 miles of coastline thanany of the other islands. Painted Cave, the largest sea cave in the world,374 meters long with a 40 meters high entrance, is here. Moreover, SantaCruz has the highest hills and the most diverse plant and animalpopulations. It is the last of the islands which is partially privatelyowned. The western 90% of this island (or 54,000 acres) is owned by thenonprofit Nature Conservancy. The eastern end (6,200 acres) is jointlyowned by the National Park Service and private land owners.

Santa Cruz lies only about 15 nautical miles off the California coast. Only Anacapa is closer. Some hardy souls do paddle to the islands, butsurf conditions change rapidly. Winds are often calm in the morning, butit is not uncommon to have forty knot gales in the afternoon! The oceanwater temperature ranges from the lower 50's (F) in the winter to the upper60's in the fall. This part of the country is also known for its dense fogwhich can roll in anytime during the summer, and you must cross a trafficlane crowded with huge cargo ships traveling 25 to 35 knots. I was veryhappy to eat sweet rolls and drink a Pepsi while our Captain ferried usacross.

Island Packers owns the park concession to run boats out to all theislands. We arrived at the Packer pier in Ventura Harbor, fifteen minutesbefore our 8 AM departure time. (We were supposed to be there an hourbefore departure but no one told us that.) The cost for our ride out andback on the "Vanguard" was $55.00 each. Of the approximately 35 people onboard, we were the only campers. The others were on a day trip to SantaCruz Island. You can arrange trips to the other islands and whale watchingtours in the winter but on the day we journeyed out, it went only to SantaCruz. The 65' "Vanguard" is a double-decked boat. You can sit on thedeck, in the galley or on the deck above the galley. The cook serves avaried menu and has a grill for eggs as well as cereal, sweet rolls,sandwiches and drinks of all sorts.

The time it takes to get to the island can vary according to theconditions of the sea. We were lucky. Today the ocean was like glass andwe reached the island shortly after 11 AM. There is no pier at thecentury-old Scorpion Ranch. We were all shuttled to the island on tworubber rafts equipped with out- board engines. It was nearly noon beforeall the people and gear were off the "Vanguard". The day trippers had apicnic lunch and took a short hike. They left around 3 in the afternoon.We wouldn't see another boat land until the "Vanguard" returned to pick usup on Friday. The four of us were watching a rock louse (Scientists callthem _Ligia pallasi_ but we called them sand roaches) scurry around thedrift wood while we debated how to haul our gear and a four day supply ofdrinking water to the camping area. (There is no drinking water on theisland. You must bring your own.) Just then a four-wheeler with a trailerpulled up and took all our things past the ranch house into an old growthEucalyptus grove (at least, as old as the imported Eucalyptus trees canbe). The trees were huge. The campground was secluded, shaded, andlovely. There were few bugs. We surmised the smell of the trees kept themaway. We pitched our tents while Ravens spewed their insults at ourintrusion. As we eyed the huge stacks of firewood besides the grilled firering, we bemoaned the fact we had not brought steaks!

Scorpion Ranch is on the eastern end of Santa Cruz. There are threebuildings in the ranch complex. There is a small ranch house, the bunkhouse (which has been remodeled into a bed and breakfast) and a fascinating tool shed/ work shop. There is a small exhibit of Chumash Indianartifacts which were found on the island. Two caretakers, Dave Mills andSusan, lived here along with Josh, a lucky teenaged boy who was spendinghis summer vacation there. There was also a couple staying in the B&B whomwe almost never saw. Supposedly there was also a couple of other womencampers on the island, but we never saw them, either. There werecaretakers at the Smuggler's Cove ranch house a couple of miles away. Withso few people around we actually we felt quite secluded. Susan, one of thecaretakers, took our $25.00 a night per person camping fee and immediatelytook off in a helicopter, bound for the mainland and groceries. Wewouldn't see her again until Friday. It was fortunate that we came out ona Tuesday. There are usually fewer campers Tuesday through Friday than theFriday through Tuesday stay. Dave, the caretaker, and the Josh were theonly people we saw for most of our stay, and they politely kept theirdistance.

The first thing we did after arriving and setting up our tents was tohike over to Smuggler's Cove, named in honor of Prohibition. The weatherwas great- cool but not cold, perfect for hiking. The rolling hills weresubstantial but not too rough. Breaking up the golden fuzzy-grassedsurface were large piles of rocks. Susan assured us they weren't gravesbut a futile attempt by Italian ranchers to clear their fields. It was alovely hike and the rocky dark sand beach at the cove was the first of manylovely beaches we'd discover. The small house and the long-unattendedolive grove looked like they had been nestled there for years.

On our walk home we all started to think about dinner. In anotherfortunate move I had assigned Rick the no-small-task of securing the foodfor our stay. He did a fantastic job! We ate great beef fajitas, withall the fixins, that first evening. Later, Dave dropped by the camp. Wequizzed him as to what kind of animals we could expect to see. He told usabout the wild goats (the hunting of which brought another form of revenueto the island), the "wild" horses, the feral pigs and the Island Foxes. Iasked, "Will we get to see the foxes?" He replied, "Do you have any food? If you do, you will see foxes." He was right. Later that evening as wejoked and laughed around the campfire, the foxes stole our bread off thepicnic table. I slept with the food in my tent the rest of the trip.

Wednesday morning arrived and it was a lovely day. We dined on bacon,eggs, and wonderful blueberry muffins Rick had made and brought along. Thesky was clear and the seas were calm. I had set up our day to kayak thecaves on our first full day. (This would allow us to pospone if there wasbad weather.) We had to rent the plastic sit-on-top Scrambler Ocean Kayakswe paddled. (You can take your own kayaks to the National Park Islands.) We also had to go with and pay for a guide. (For Insurance purposes, sincethis was a "private" island. Yeah, Right.) We shelled out $65.00 each(paid to Island Adventures) for our trip. Dave, the caretaker (and man ofmany hats), led us out about 10 AM, heading northwest around the island. Again, luck was with us. The seas were calm. We got to paddle into morethan a dozen caves, many of which are impassable in rough surf. Each wasdifferent from the next. Some were arches we'd merely paddle through. Oneof these arches had three entrances, the center of which was a giantclothes washer with waves coming in from several directions. It took a lotof concentration to keep even those stable little boats, upright. We wereall experienced kayakers, except for Rick, but Rick was reasonablyathletic, so he did fine. Some of the caves were little more thanoverhangs or indentations in the black cliff walls. Others, such as SealCanyon Cave (189 meters /620 feet) were long. There were no formations. These aren't solution caves. They were formed by the physical pounding ofthe surf against the cliff walls. What was left were walls composed ofrough volcanic rock, covered with barnicles. They are to be avoided. Ithink we all got some scratches.

We took other precautions. We all wore life vests, of course. We alsoall had caving helmets with lights. Tides were not a problem since theycould be predicted. Problems arise with the occasional random oceanswells. We never all went into any cave at the same time. We always had one paddler act as a look-out at the mouth of the cave with a whistle to warn us about incoming swells.

We paddled through Seal Canyon Cave, Sidepocket, Dripstone and PurpleUrchin Caves; all the way past Hay Stack rock. Each cave had a different character. The booming and crashing of the waves was often deafening asthe water pushed your boat around. The strange Darth Vader sounds causedby random air pockets made the experience even more eerie. Often there wasa little sand beach at the back of the cave where you could land your boatand walk around a bit. Occasionally there was a hole in the cave wall thatwas open to the outside sun light but was under water in the cave. Thismade a glowing, greenish patch of lighted water in the cave. Several timeswe came across Harbor Seals playing in the surf or resting on the shores. It was truely magnificent! We paddled our way up to Potato Harbor, had alight lunch, and snorkled a bit.

Although we only had snorkle gear, many people come to the islands toscuba dive. The water is clear. One hundred and fifty species ofshellfish and two hundred and thirteen species of finfish call the massiveKelp beds around the Channel Islands, their home. There are at least sevenship wrecks to dive in the area. The water is cool enough that I feltcomfortable in my shortie wet suit. The others took to the water in justtheir swim suits and were pretty cold. We saw schools of shiny silverfish. There were larger, brightly colored fish playing hide-and-seek inthe kelp forests. Here Ernie saw the first of the three foot in diameterBat Rays. After our swim we paddled our way home. We all thought thatthis was the end of our trip, but Dave said he needed to make a short stopat the ranch house and then we were off to check out the caves south of theranch. After touring another half dozen caves, our long day of paddlingwas over. I have often made snide comments about the amount of money wewere shelling out for this trip, but this excursion, we all agreed, wasworth every penny! What a wonderful experience and we still had two moredays to spend on the island! Dinner was another wonderful meal. Amazinghow good hot dogs and cous cous can taste when you are outdoors. For somereason, we went to bed rather early that night.

The next day after pancakes we were off on another hike cross country toPotato Harbor. The view from the tops of the cliffs looking down on theocean was beautiful. It was a bit cooler and foggier today so we were allglad we took our kayak trip yesterday. On the way back we followed avalley that led us right to our Eucalyptus shaded camp. Later that eveningwe explored the ranch and fed the Island Foxes. It was a simple matter toset up a bait station and photograph the Foxes as they came to eat our leftover cous cous. For some reason these little scavengers seemed to botherRick. Perhaps it was because everyone had a tent but him. He slept in asleeping bag spred out on a tarp in the open. It wasn't bad. Thetemperature was great and it was fun watching the meteors streak by. (Wejust happened to time the trip right around the arrivial of the annualPerseid meteor shower.) I was the last one to go to sleep that evening so,naturally, I spread crackers all around my sleeping buddy, Rick. Fridaymorning we all got to hear Rick tell stories about the foxes (the size ofwolves, Rick claimed) that were crawling all over him. You should know,however, that Rick is prone to exaggeration. This morning, as with theothers, we got to watch a parade of sheep and horses going to the wateringhole just down from our camp. By wild horses, I guess Dave meant that youcouldn't ride them, because they would come right up to us and almostseemed to want to be petted but would stay just out of reach. We diddiscover that they had a taste for our oranges. This day we hiked to alittle secluded beach we had seen on Wednesday. We did a little moresnorkling and we were all happy to wear wet suits. The bright blue andyellow fish looked fantastic swimming through the kelp beds. There wasanother giant Bat Ray lurking on the bottom. Starfish, sea slugs(nudibranches), anemones and crabs were everywhere. It was fun but tiringand we happily accepted a boat ride with Dave back to the ranch.

That last night, Rick pulled out his home-made spaghetti sauce fordinner. We dined like royality. Later, as we all lounged around the fire,Dave brought over some Sea Bass to grill and we all ate again! It wasawesome! We all sat around the camp while Dave told stories of the historyof the islands and hair-raising tales of sheep hunts.

Saturday we were due to be picked up, but not until 3 PM. After wequickly broke camp, we had time for one last adventure. We bummed a boatride with one of the crew of the "Vanguard" to a beach just beyondyesterday's. We shared this beach with a forlorn looking Elephant Sealpup. The crewman explained that this little guy was called a "weaner."His mom had just weaned him and he was lonely and confused. They usuallypout a bit and then go about doing what seals do, but at the moment, thiswas one unhappy little fellow. We just went about our business and hestared at us with his big brown eyes as if he was saying, "OK. Now whatmisfortunes are you about to bring me?" We didn't oblige him. We justsnorkled and shelled. I saw Limpets, California Mussels, Brown TurbanShells, several species of Cowries, as well as the occasional purple unchinshell. From here we could also swim to a little cave Dave called FlatLiners. It would have been very tight for our kayaks to go through but itwas perfect for swimming. It was quite a ways to the back of the cave.Once again at the back of the cave there was a lovely little beach withwaves crashing ashore deep within the cliff. This was probably my favoritecave of the trip, something that my companions and I will never forget.Later, as we were all exhausted from our swims into and out of the cave, itwas Dave to the rescue gain. He boated over and picked us all up to returnus to Scorpion Bay. We were quiet on the trip back. I waved to thepelicans, cormorants, and Herring gulls watching over us. I wanted to soakin the views as our trip was coming to an end. We spent only a short timeon the beach before the crew was shuttling us back to the "Vanguard".There was a new group, of perhaps a dozen campers, milling about lookingfor campsites as we pulled away. I can only hope that their stay would beas wonderful as ours. Halfway home a friendly pod of Dolphins met us. Wecould see perhaps a hundred of them swimming and jumping around the boat.Our captain said there could be two times as many under the water. It wasquite a good bye. We got to the mainland by 6 PM and the Channel IslandMuseum & Visitor's Center was already closed. This is as good a reason asany, to plan a return trip, for I will return.

ADDENDUM: As of 1997, Santa Cruze Island is wholly owned andrun by the Natural Park Service. Dave and Susan no longer live on theisland. For more up to date information and more Channel Island tripreports contact:
Eric Little or Joe Coito at Adventours.

Channel Islands National Marine Santuary
113 Harbor Way
Santa Barbara, CA 93109
(805) 966-7197

Channel Islands National Park
1901 Spinnaker Drive
Ventura, CA 93001
(805) 658-5700 Weekdays 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM.

All park campgrounds require a free camping permit. Back country permitsare required for access beyond the beach areas on San Miguel and Santa RosaIslands.

Different regulations and closures are in effect for the various islands inthe park. Contact the National Park and obtain a NOAA/NMS Synopsis ofRegulations Map for details.
Park Visitor Center
(805) 658-5730
On the web: http://www.nps.gov/chis/

Santa Cruz Island Project of the Nature Conservancy
P.O. Box 23258
(or 213 Stearns Wharf)
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 962-9111

State Lands Commission
1807 13th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 322-4105

Aquasports
Santa Barbara coastal and Channel Islands guided sea kayak trips.
tel: (805) 968-7231
fax: (805) 968-1887
email: elittle@usa.nethttp://www.adventours-inc.com/kayak.htm

Cruses on the Condor
Sea Landing Sportfishing
301 Cabrillo Blvd
Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Island Adventures
308 Lion Street
Ojai, CA, 93023
(805) 646-2513

Island Packers
The park service concessionare for transportation to allthe islands. Whale viewing trips. Ventura departures
1867 Spinnaker Drive
Ventura, CA 93001
Information (recording) 805-642-7688
Reservations (805) 642-1393

Paddle Sports of Santa Barbara
100 State Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
(805) 8994925

Alolkoy
The Publication of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary
Published quarterly by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and theCINMS, 113 Harbor Way, Santa Barbara, CA 93109, (805) 966-7107.

Sea Caves of Anacapa Island
Bunnell, David
1993, McNally & Loftin,Publishers, PO Box 1316, Santa Barbara, CA 93102.

The Sea Caves of California's Channel Islands
Bunnell, David
Sea Kayaker Magazine, Fall 1994, Vol. 11, No. 2.

Sea Caves of Santa Cruz Island
Bunnell, David
1988, McNally & Loftin,Publishers, PO Box 1316, Santa Barbara, CA 93102.

Diary of a Sea Captain's Wife: Tales of Santa Cruz Island
Eaton, Margaret Holden
Janice Timbrook- Editor, McNally & Loftin, Publishers, SantaBarbara, 1980.

Diver's Guide to Underwater America
Kellt, Kate and John Shobe
Divesports Publishing, 1982.

North Americas Top Sea Caves
Olson, Mark and other various authors
Paddler magazine, June 1994.

Santa Cruz Island: The Spring Fever Cure
Olson, Mark
Top Paddler, Issue3, Spring 1993.