Charting a New Course : Families, Day-Trippers Discover Latest Addition to Channel Islands National Park

Far below the bluffs that overlook the century-old adobe buildings at Scorpion Ranch, it’s easy to tell that the Channel Islands National Park has embarked on something new.

The gentle anchorage, once the destination of only the saltiest of seafarers, is now crowded with dozens of pleasure boats. The quiet pumice stone beaches bustle with kayakers, snorkelers, hikers and bird watchers preparing for a day of discovery on this newest addition to the park.

After years of struggling to boost attendance at the remote five-island park, officials are heartened to see the crowds that have followed February’s purchase of the final piece of east Santa Cruz Island.

“People are starting to catch on that this is the best national park in the world,” park Supt. Tim Setnicka said.

The park service estimates more than 1,100 private boaters have cruised the islands during weekends this summer--a whopping 400% increase over the average that sailed there in years past.

And while the number of visitors reaching the park by scheduled ferry service has remained constant, the face of today’s island visitor has changed markedly.

“We’ve got a much different kind of clientele than we had a few years ago,” said Glen Galbraith from the bridge of the Vanguard, a 65-foot charter boat. “It used to be that we’d get a lot of hunters or real serious hikers, but now it’s mostly families and day-trippers.”

Park officials like to credit the islands’ rugged wilderness and scenic beauty with fueling its newfound popularity. But economics play a huge role.

Since the park service assumed ownership of the last sliver of east Santa Cruz Island from Oxnard attorney Francis Gherini, it has eliminated the hefty $15 boat-landing fees and $25 camping fees imposed by Gherini’s hunting concessionaire.

“I’ve been coming to the Channel Islands since I was a little girl, but we never really ever stopped and gotten off. It was too expensive,” said 34-year-old sailing enthusiast Dana Whaley of San Luis Obispo. “Now there are more boats anchored out there than I’ve ever seen before.”

For now, entrance to all the islands is free, though visitors without their own watercraft must shell out $40 or more to travel to the island on chartered boats run by Island Packers, the park’s designated concessionaire.

Some visitors pay $85 to $150 to fly across Santa Barbara Channel and land on Santa Cruz’s bumpy, dirt airstrip.

The Channel Islands National Park started small in 1938, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands aside as a national monument.

In 1980, Congress designated the monument a national park and expanded it to include Santa Rosa, San Miguel and Santa Cruz islands, as well as the waters extending out a mile from the coasts of each island.

Despite the archipelago’s lyric beauty, unique environment and proximity to an urban metropolis, its popularity has been limited to just a handful.

Although more than 4 million people visited Yosemite National Park last year, only about 40,000 actually set foot on any one of the park service islands.

In contrast, the park’s Visitors Center at Ventura Harbor is the more popular destination. About 220,000 traipsed through the center’s doors to see various natural history exhibits.

The park service hopes to change all that by making Santa Cruz the jewel in its necklace of glittering isles situated off Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Park officials hope to install a dock at Scorpion Ranch later this year to eliminate the sometimes precarious off-loading of passengers by dinghy. They also plan to open a welcoming center as well as offer ranger-guided hikes on trails leading to Smugglers’ Cove, Potato Harbor and Cavern Point.

“It’s got a real friendly character and a gorgeous environment,” Setnicka said. “But visitors can still get that sense of wildness, which is hard to get at places like Yosemite.”

Immediate plans for the island include enlarging it 37-site campground, improving its web of trails as well as its waste disposal and drinking-water systems.

Officials are already rounding up the estimated 2,500 wild sheep and feral pigs, once used as game by Gherini’s hunting operation. The plan is to remove the animals--and transport them to mainland ranches--so native shrubbery and wildflowers can again flourish after years of excessive grazing.

And, taking a cue from the former hunting concessionaires on the island, officials would like to refurbish the historic adobes to house the island’s less-adventurous visitors.

Park officials have less ambitious plans for the other four islands, preferring to focus on preserving or restoring their ecology.

As with all national parks, a careful balance must be struck between popularity and protection.

“National parks have to walk a very fine line,” said Kevin Collins of the Washington-based National Park Conservancy Assn. “On the one hand, they want people to visit, but on the other they can’t have too many.”

But officials at the park don’t see that as a problem.

Already, the park enforces the daily 100-person limit on Santa Cruz Island visitors arriving by Island Packers’ boats. Also, Setnicka says the island’s remote site, 22 miles off the coast, limits the type of use that has tainted other parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone.

“The only kind of people who are out there are the ones who really want to be,” Setnicka said. “You’ve got folks that have gone through all the bureaucratic channels to make camping reservations and find a way out. So when they come, they’re very pleased to be at the park.”

Alan Bleiman and Sri Vanderkroef of Santa Barbara raced to set up their tent on a recent weekend so they could explore the island’s hilly grasslands.

“We’ve been looking out at these islands for years and have always wanted to come,” said Bleiman, pitching his tent under a canopy of fragrant eucalyptus trees. “It’s gorgeous and feels so wild out here.”

Because demand for a sense of wildness is growing, Vanderkroef said they had to make camping reservations more than three weeks in advance.

“I didn’t think it was going to be this popular,” Vanderkroef said, motioning toward the dozens of other brightly colored tents. “But now that I’m out here I guess I can understand.”

Nearby, John Manka, a national park ranger on vacation from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in Indiana, said his experience on Santa Cruz Island was nothing short of unique.

“This is quite different from anywhere else I’ve been,” Manka said before entering Scorpion Canyon to search for the elusive island scrub jay. “The fact that you get to be on an island is what’s really special about this place. They’re exotic and have this certain kind of attraction that makes it a real experience.”