Day Trip: Anacapa, Channel Islands

Yesterday I took a much needed mini-vacation. A friend and I headed up to Anacapa, part of the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. I had always heard that the Channel Islands were beautiful, but never knew just how amazing until yesterday. For those of you who are familiar with SoCal, or may want to visit the island(s) yourself, here is some info.

We drove to Oxnard where we took an Island Packers round trip boat ride. It was just under $50, a reasonable price. It takes about an hour to get to the island, but we had a pretty rough ride so it may have taken us a bit longer. Thank goodness I don't get seasick, but many people were affected by the choppy water caused by wind and bad weather.

Once we landed on the island, we took a guided hike to see the sights. Anacapa is very small, only 1.5 miles with no buildings aside from a few that park rangers use. There are no shops, restaurants, or bathrooms that most of us are accustomed to today. In other words, it's a deserted island ;)

Western gulls are the main inhabitants of the island. In fact, Anacapa is the largest breeding colony of these birds in the world. It was a bit scary to see thousands of birds, especially because they screech when you get near them as they are nesting right now. You'll see below that we got to see some of the eggs.

Here are some of the pics that we snapped during the adventure:

On the way to Anacapa we had the pleasure of seeing dolphins. There were quite a few of them that were enjoying being playful with our boat. They were swimming all around us and jumping out of the water. It was awesome to see a mom and its calf frolicking next to us just feet away. It's not the steadiest of videos, but here is some footage of the stunning creatures:

If you get a chance to visit Anacapa, do! Has anyone else been here, or to any of the Channel Islands?

Photos courtesy of: Our cameras and Island Packers