A Salty Dog at Rincon and Channel Islands National Park

Camping at Rincon Parkway is definitely a different experience. The campground, and I use that term loosely, is really just a wide shoulder along Hwy 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, with 127 spaces marked off for RV parking. No amenities, except garbage dumpsters and a couple of porta-potties. We are shoehorned in nose to tail and for larger rigs, it is tight. We arrived around noon on Sunday, 3/6, and were fortunate that the space in front of us was unoccupied when we arrived. That made it easy to pull in and get parked, otherwise, you’d have to parallel park your RV. Our Acadia is parked perpendicular in front of the 33-foot short bus and we completely fill our space.

 

Parked nose to tail, but what a view!

The boys wasted no time getting down to the beach.

That said, it is really kinda cool here. We are parked at the top of a sandstone boulder sea wall with unobstructed views of the ocean. Of course, just a few feet on the other side of the rig is Hwy 1, but it’s not too busy and the sound of the surf drowns out most of the traffic noise. We have enjoyed sitting on the patio watching the seabirds and dolphins, with an occasional visit from a thirsty ground squirrel. 

Bird watching, dolphin spotting, and squirrel sipping. Lol. 

Riley is loving the beach time. Getting him up and down over the boulders was a bit challenging. There are no stairs or easy beach access, but some campsites have more manageable paths down. There’s no way Riley could navigate the boulders where we’re parked, but we found a couple places a few spots down that were better. Luckily, we’re here midweek and enough sites have stayed open that we’ve been able to get him to the beach every day. In the past, he hasn't been a fan of the waves. This time he plunged right in. In fact, he quickly learned the best way to play keep-away was to run out into the surf where Daddy wouldn't follow. Then he'd turn his back on the waves, either very brave or totally clueless. Guess which one I'm betting on. Lol. 

Riley has obviously overcome his fear of the surf. 

Catch the bouncy ball!

And our Salty Dog is off again!

While we’re loving the beach, the real reason we chose Rincon was for its proximity to Ventura. We’re here to visit Channel Islands National Park. This will be the 37th National Park we’ve visited since July 2016 when we started our year on the road and we’re excited to add a new one to the list. The only way to access Channel Islands is by boat and we have reservations for Tuesday morning with Island Packers, the park’s concessionaire. It looks like the weather will be perfect!

Island Explorer - our Tuesday morning ride to the islands. 

We’re big fans of the National Park visitor centers, so on Monday we stopped by the Channel Islands visitor’s center in Ventura Harbor. We saw lots of interesting exhibits and a great movie which highlighted the history of the islands and current conservation efforts. Fossil records show the islands have been populated for 13,000 years. Early inhabitants include the Chumash native tribes, Spanish explorers landed in 1542, and more recently the islands were used for sheep ranching.  While efforts to preserve the islands started in the 1930’s, Channel Islands wasn’t established as a national park until 1980. After perusing the visitor’s center, we walked along the beach, saw more dolphins and watched a couple of surfers ride the waves.

 

The main Visitor's Center for Channel Islands National Park is in Ventura.

You can see Santa Cruz Island from the observation tower.

Mad skills, but it still looks too cold for me. Lol. 

We boarded the Island Packers boat at 9am on Tuesday, 3/8, for the 1½ hour cruise to the islands. Along the way they detoured so we could get a closer look at the rare Pacific white-sided dolphin. We also followed a couple of gray whales that were spouting and breaching. I have always wanted to do a whale watching excursion, so it felt like we were getting extra bang for our buck. Lol.

Gray whale breaching. So cool!!

A rare Pacific white-sided dolphin.
The crew identified it, I sure can't tell the difference! Lol. 

I'm not the only paparazzi on board. Lol. 

The Channel Islands were never connected to the mainland and, as a result of that isolation, has nearly 150 endemic species found nowhere else on earth. It has been called the Galapagos Islands of North America. We’ll be visiting Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the five islands (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara, and San Miguel) that make up the National Park. Each of the islands has something unique to offer - sea caves, plants and animals found nowhere else, sea bird rookeries, or breeding grounds for the huge Northern Elephant Seals, sea lions and harbor seals. I really want to visit them all! But with just one day we had to make some difficult decisions. Which island? Which anchorage? Kayak or hike? We chose Scorpion anchorage on the east side of Santa Cruz. We thought hard about scheduling a kayaking tour, but we really wanted to hike and didn’t think the five hours we had on the island would be time to do both. Maybe next visit… 😊

 

Santa Cruz, the largest of the Channel Islands.

Anchorage at Scorpion Bay. 

Lots of sea caves and cool rock formation for the kayakers to explore.

A passage through an imposing rock wall. 

Ranching on Santa Cruz lasted from the 1850’s to 1984 and dramatically affected the ecosystem and native habitat. It wasn't until 1997 that the National Park system acquired the last interest from the ranchers on Santa Cruz. The Nature Conservancy currently owns about 75% of the island. Many non-native plants and animals were introduced during the ranching era and with habitat loss nearly wiped out several of the endemic species, including the absolutely adorable Island Fox. They are one of the smallest canids, about 4-5 lbs, 12 inches tall, and 19 inches long. Each of the islands has a distinct subspecies of fox, which are about the size of a small house cat. While many of the historical ranch buildings remain, all the sheep and feral pigs have been removed from the island. Bald eagles were reintroduced and the Island Fox population rebounded from fewer than a 100 to over 2000 on Santa Cruz Island alone.

Historic buildings and equipment remain at Scorpion Ranch.

 

Evidence of ranching is found across the island. 

A raven surveys his domain from a perch on antique farm equipment.

The adorable (and no longer endangered) Island Fox.

We hiked the Cavern Point Loop trail, continuing along the North Bluff Trail to Potato Harbor (named for its shape, no actual potatoes were involved). It was about 6 miles roundtrip, and the views were absolutely stunning. We had perfect weather and the wildflowers were blooming everywhere. We saw foxes multiple times and they had no fear at all. Unlike most species, these little guys are active during the day. Well, if you call napping in the sun active. Lol.

The hillsides were covered with yellow flowers.

 

More wildflowers.
It was a gorgeous time to hike the island. 

The old fence line ran right up to the cliff edge.

I want to explore the sea caves!!

Happy Campers. 😉

Potato Harbor.

More sightings of the (not so) elusive Island Fox. Lol.

This little dude was totally asleep on the job. Lol.

The Island Fence Lizard, another species endemic to the island.

A view of Anacapa Island in the distance.

The waters around the island have forests of giant kelp. It’s a great spot for diving or snorkeling. We loved watching the sea birds too. Graceful V’s of pelicans skimming just above the waves. Although the most entertaining birds were the ravens. We were warned that they are accomplished camp robbers who have learned to unzipper a backpack to steal food or shiny baubles. We watched them in action on the beach and talked to one camper who almost lost his car keys when they unzipped two pouches on this pack!

 

Extremely accomplished thieves, with attitude. Lol.

Giant kelp forests provide habitat and food for an amazing array of marine life.

Seabirds fly along the shore.

Pelicans are graceful in flight... 

...they swoop in formation just inches above the waves. 

We were sad to end our day on Santa Cruz Island, but we were back on the boat for our return voyage by 3:30pm. The trip back wasn’t without some excitement though. We were treated to a huge, and I do mean HUGE pod of dolphins. There must have been an all-you-can-eat buffet, because there were at least a hundred of them. So many dolphins leaping and cavorting that it was hard to get a picture showing the size of the group. They stayed along the boat for several minutes and it was a spectacular show.

 

Dolphins!

More Dolphins!

Lots and lots more dolphins! Lol.

We had a few more days at Rincon after our visit to Channel Islands and we made daily pilgrimages to the beach. The sunsets were dramatic and just sitting and watching the waves was mesmerizing. We’d have liked to go back for a second visit to Channel Islands, either to kayak or visit a different island, but didn’t feel it was fair to leave Riley alone for another long day. We definitely wouldn’t mind a return trip, there is lots more to see and do here!

 

When you can't pick just one. Lol.

The sun sinks beneath the waves at Rincon.

We left Rincon on Friday, 3/11. Our plan is to stop at Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield again and then we have a new stop and another new (to us) national park to visit. Should be fun!