Ventura - Channel Islands National Park April 18 - 21, 2002 [Ventura Gallery] [Channel Islands Gallery] [Back to Photo Page]

Channel Islands National Park (headquater at Ventura), established in 1980, consists of five islands off the coast of southern California: Anacapa Island, Santa Cruz Island, Santa Rosa Island, San Miguel Island, and Santa Barbara Island. Isolation over thousands of years and the mingling of warm and cold ocean currents give rise to the rich of biodiversity of these islands. The main purpose of this trip was actually going to an airshow at Point Mugu NAS near Ventura (between LA and Santa Barbara), but Channel Islands National Park naturally became another major interest of the trip.

Getting there ...

We left from the Bay Area on Thursday (4/18) afternoon and started a 6-hour drive to Ventura. With a short stop for dinner on HWY-5, it's already passed 9PM when we checked in the hotel in Ventura.

The Second Day ...

• Ventura Beach
  

  We took a walk to the downtown of Ventura and its City Hall in the morning. It is a small town with only a few blocks. It is also a very short distance walk to the beach and the pier. We spent almost an hour around the beach and walked on the pier. It was quite windy when we walked on the pier further into the sea.

• Point Mugu NAS
  The feature of this airshow was the US Airforce Thunderbirds. After their regular 45-min show, Thunderbirds decided to continue to do more practice (beginning of the airshow season?) so we have chances to see some maneuvers twice. I wished we could stay longer after sunset for the night show, but nobody would like to stay late with me.

It was very sad that a QF-4 was crashed on the next day (4/20, Saturday) and both pilot and RIO were killed in the accident.

 

The Third Day ...

• Sunrise at Ventura Beach
  I walked to the beach before sunrise. There were quite a few early morning surfers who enjoyed the water activities while I enjoyed taking some pictures of them.
  

• Anacapa, Channel Islands
  Channel Islands National Park is one of the least visited national parks in the US. Annual visitation to the park's mainland visitor center is 300,000. Visitation to the islands and waters is low, with only about 30,000 visitors traveling to the islands. Anacapa Island is the closest to the mainland (11 miles from Oxnard) and the most popular destination.
  

  I booked the boat tickets to East Anacapa Island about 2 weeks in advance. It was scheduled to depart from Oxnard at 1:30PM and it took about 75 minutes for the boat ride. Even though Woanyu and Linus already took the medicine for motion sickness, they were still very uncomfortable on the boat. It should be considered as one of the calm days, but it was still a rough ride for us. After reaching the Landing Cove, we had to climb a ladder from an untied boat to the dock, and climbed 154 steps up to the top of the island. We took the 1.5-mile nature trail on the island (the only trail on the island) and had an easy walk. The island is dominated by thousands of Western Gulls and Brown Pelicans.

We spent about 2 hours on the island, and headed back to the docking area at about 5PM. The returned ride was smoother and both Woanyu and Linus felt much better than the previous ride.

Going Home ...

It's another long way to drive back home. Linus and Iris seemed already used to long distance ride and had a good time in the car. Rough sea boat ride was not a very good experience for us this time. I think Woanyu will resist to go on any boat in the future.

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