2/15/08 (Friday): Happy birthday to me! We're in Moss Landing, near Monterey for the long weekend. Mark and his family are joining us, and we're going to have some fun! But I'm behind in my blogging, so I'll talk about the fun time we had last weekend in the Channel Islands.

It was a gorgeous day, and we celebrated our anniversary with a trip to the Channel Islands. They're close (about 30 miles) off the coast of Ventura. It was COLD on the Pacific, so we were glad we had our coats with us. We look like refugees, don't we?!

On the way out of the harbor, we passed this "pirate ship."






There were lots of offshore oil rigs.


The Channel Islands are sometimes called the Galapagos of the U.S. because they were never attached to the mainland. This isolation caused unique animals and plants to evolve. There are five islands: Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara. The ferry was scheduled to go to Santa Cruz, the biggest of the Channel Islands, so we didn't have a choice as to which island we'd visit.

We were hoping to see some whales on the trip over. The Santa Barbara Channel between Ventura and the Channel Islands is a major migration route for gray whales. But we hit the two week period when the migration south ends and the migration north hasn't yet begun, so we didn't see any. We did see offshore oil rigs, sea lions, an elephant seal and lots of sea birds. There was also a lot of shipping in the area, including this large container ship. The captain said there were about 30 carago ships a day.



We docked at this tiny pier in Scorpion Harbor (I don't know why it's called that).












The water was deep and very clear with lots of kelp. There were numerous fish swimming among the long strands of kelp.







There were some large rocks in Scorpion Harbor, and one of them was an arch that you could see all the way through. It's hard to see in this picture. It's in the middle rock.



In addition to the natural history on the island, there was also lots of cultural history, including remnants of Chumash Native American Indians and ranching. There were a dozen Chumash villages that were home to over 1,000 people. They mined chert deposits for tools and produced money from shells found only on the island as a major trade item by tribes throughout California. They used large plank canoes, called “tomols" to travel between islands and to the mainland.

The remains of ranches and lots of ranching equipment are also scattered around the island. We saw an adobe ranch house and barn, an outhouse (that's Wiley in the outhouse!) an ice house and lots of equipment like this old tractor.

There was also a huge oven that produced bread for the entire island and is still intact. That's an ice house that Wiley's peering into.

According to legend, Santa Cruz Island was named for a priest’s staff accidentally left on the island by Spanish explorers in 1769. A Chumash Indian found it and returned it to the priest. The Spaniards were so impressed by the friendly people that they named it “La Isla de Santa Cruz,” the Island of the Sacred Cross. The Nature Conservancy owns and manages the western three quarters of the island and the National Park Service owns and manages the rest.

A ranger met us and we were given the option of taking a tour with the ranger or hiking on our own. We opted to hike part way with the ranger and then took off on our own. The ranger told us about many of the unique plants we saw along the way and the history and geology of the islands. When we got to the top of the trail, we left the ranger and then headed off on our own for Potato Cove. It was very steep, but the views were breathtaking!











Turn on your sound and hear how winded I am as I narrate this video from the top of the island!

After the hike to Potato Cove, we turned around, went back down the big hill and then back up again and hiked to the other end of the island on the crest trail. There were views of the ocean all around us as we hiked the backbone of the island. The white stuff on the trail ahead of Wiley is diotomaceous earth, which is made up of millions of one-celled sea critters. It's used in many scientific processes and in pool filters.


It was a fantastic day. We've made some wonderful memories in California.