A Special Time for a Cruise to Explore Nearby Anacapa

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to go with someone special on a romantic island cruise--and day hike. The Channel Islands beckon, not with South Seas or Caribbean sensuousness, but with dramatic mountaintops and jagged shorelines.

The only disappointed visitors are casual tourists who, while motoring along U.S. 101, see the sign: Channel Islands National Park. They exit the freeway, only to find that the “national park” on Ventura Harbor is just a reception building. The real park is in the Pacific, 14 to 60 miles away--a series of blue-tinged mountains floating on the horizon.

The islands parallel the Southern California coast, which at this point is running more or less east-west to Point Conception. In 1980, five of eight Channel Islands--Anacapa, San Miguel, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa--became the nation’s 40th and Southern California’s first national park.

Anacapa Island, closest to the mainland, was called Las Mesitas (Little Tables) by Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola in 1769. Ventura sheep men once owned the island, which has no water. It’s hard to imagine how the sheep survived. The popular belief is that night fog was so dense that the sheep’s coats became soaked, each sheep becoming a wooly sponge by morning.

Sea Lions, Caves

Anacapa, 12 miles southwest of Port Hueneme, is the most accessible Channel Island. It offers the day hiker a sampling of the charms of the larger islands to the west. Below the tall wind-and-wave-cut cliffs, sea lions bark at the crashing breakers. Gulls, owls, herons and pelicans call the cliffs home.

Anacapa is really three islands chained together with reefs that rise above the surface during low tide. West Anacapa is the largest segment, featuring great caves where the Chumash Indians are said to have collected water dripping from the ceiling. The middle isle hosts a wind-battered eucalyptus grove.

The east isle, where the National Park has its visitors center, is the light of the Channel Islands; a Coast Guard lighthouse and foghorn warns ships of the dangerous channel. Anacapa’s 60,000-candlepower light has been in service since 1932. The guardian light is visible for 24 miles in all directions, and the foghorn never ceases its call.

This day hike tours East Anacapa Island. The island is barely a mile long and a quarter-mile wide, so even though you tour the whole island, it’s a short hike. The route follows the park service’s figure-eight nature trail, which explains some of the human history on the isle and gives you views of Cathedral Cove, site of a western gull rookery. You’ll also have fine views of the mainland you left behind and miles of blue Pacific.

Directions to trailhead: For the most up-to-date information on boat departures, contact Channel Islands National Park on Ventura Harbor at (805) 644-8157. Most commercial tour operators leave from the Ventura and Oxnard marinas. A number of whale-watching tours are offered during winter when the gray whales migrate. Some of these tour boats land on Anacapa Island and some don’t. One company, Island Packers, runs year-round to Anacapa. Their boats leave every Saturday and Sunday. Weekday trips are scheduled during whale season and in summer. Information: (805) 642-1393 or (805) 642-7688.

The hike: It’s a romantic approach to East Anacapa as you sail past Arch Rock. As you come closer, however, the island looks forsaken, not a tree in sight. But as you near the mooring at the east end of the isle, the honeycomb of caves and coves is intriguing. A skiff brings you to the foot of an iron stairway. You climb 150 stairs, ascending steep igneous rocks to the cliff tops.

What you find on top depends on the time of year. In February and March, you may enjoy the sight of 30-ton gray whales passing south on their way to calving and mating waters off Baja California. In early spring, the giant coreopsis, the island’s featured attraction, is something to behold. It is called the tree sunflower, an awkward, thick-trunked perennial that grows as tall as 10 feet.

The nature trail leaves from the visitors center, where you can learn about island life, past and present. A helpful pamphlet is available describing the trail’s features. Remember to stay on the trail; the island’s ground cover is easily damaged.

Anacapa Island Loop Trail

From Visitors Center: two miles round trip.