We got to visit one of the most unique national parks and one of our last ones in California: Channel Islands NP! A visit to this park involves a 1+ hour long ferry ride from Ventura, which kicked off the adventure right away.
On the way over, we saw so many schools of dolphins.
They were beautiful! Playing in the surf, following the boat, diving under the bow. We probably saw two or three HUNDRED dolphins that day!
And then, we finally approached Scorpion Cove. The ferry drops you and all your gear at the pier and then it's about 1 mile to the group campground where we were camping for a couple of nights.
Scorpion Canyon has some trees, so we had shade in the campground, unlike most of the surrounding hills on that part of the island.
They aren't native trees, but we appreciated them anyway. Seems like the early settlers LOVED eucalyptus--it's everywhere in CA.
Once we set up our tents, we walked back down to the beach to explore.
Found a cool limpet type I don't think I've seen before.
There are kelp beds all around the pier which make for good snorkeling. We had also rented kayaks so our group took turns snorkeling, kayaking, and hanging out on the beach.
That evening, we went for a hike up one of the bluffs to get to where we could see the sunset.
There were beautiful views everywhere we looked.
Brothers.
This was a fun group to camp with--4 families (or parts of families--not everyone wanted to do some rustic camping.)
We waited around to watch the sun
and the kids made some of us parents really nervous as they played too close to the cliffs for our comfort.
What a great day--and we still had two more!
I got up the next morning and did more exploring of the cliffs and the views.
It was a beautiful morning.
I hiked farther along the coastal bluffs than we had the night before.
And made it to Potato Harbor.
There are so many sea caves along the coast here--more than anywhere else in the world, apparently. We had gone in some the day before, and some people went out early that morning, too.
Back at camp for breakfast! The group sites are pretty basic, but they have three picnic tables and plenty of space to set up many tents.
After breakfast, we went back over to the beach--and saw one of many island foxes on the way! They are so sweet and so not scared of people.
Spent the morning taking turns on the kayaks and with the snorkel gear.
After lunch, a group of us hiked back up to Potato Harbor where I had been in the morning.
Beautiful coastline.
And then, the kids went back out for another sunset hike. I decided that three times up the hill was too much for me (I'd already done over 10 miles of hiking that day.)
The kids took some pictures with my phone up there.
Bean was having fun.
Sunset #2.
They ended up staying up there quite awhile and hiked back in the dark.
It was fun doing this adventure with friends.
And on the third morning I hiked in a different direction--up Scorpion Canyon to bird watch.
It was a really foggy morning, which made for beautiful cobwebs.
So misty that morning.
Along with birds, I found some flowers, too.
The island paintbrush is one of the endemic species on the island.
After we cleaned up camp, we had a few hours left to spend exploring.
Some people hiked, most people went out on the water.
It was fun having kayaks right there, ready to go. We went in more sea caves and looked for Garibaldi and sea stars near the rocks and shoreline. The water was clearer this last day and made it easy to see things, even from up in the kayak.
Such a fun trip!
And we really enjoyed hanging out with this group.
And then, it was time to go. The kayaks we'd rented on the mainland were loaded back on the ferry,
and we said goodbye to the kelp forest.
We had another long ride back.
And not as many dolphins as on the ride out, but we did run into a couple of schools and one of them were feeding--it was fun to see the feeding frenzy.
