We stayed the night in Ventura knowing we would be catching our morning ferry to the Santa Cruz island. We had booked a Kayak trip with Aquasports who coordinated our ferry with Island Packers. When arriving to the dock, there were three boats leaving that morning...one to Santa Cruz (ours), one to San Miguel, and one to Santa Rosa. There were kayakers, backpackers, campers, surfers...all types. All three boats were approximately the same size; the one to Santa Rosa left right behind us and is in the picture below.
The ferry trip to Santa Cruz was a bit over an hour. On the way there, it was somewhat rough and at times difficult to walk around the boat. We had a nice spot on the upper deck with a great view off the side and back. We only saw a couple dolphin in the bay when leaving, and then a harbor seal when arriving at the Scorpion Ranch dock.
The ferry boat did have a National Park ranger along with two National Park volunteers. The volunteer had asked us all where we were from; 90% of the boat was from out of state as well as overseas. Thinking back now to that question, it makes me even more angry at the US Government for closing down the parks.
The island itself was fairly bare; smoking was not allowed unless you were standing in the ocean. It was fairly obvious that a flame would easily end up in a brush blaze.
The ferry boat ran back and forth a few times a day; there were quiet a few people overnight camping that took our boat back. Upon arriving at the island, we easily found the kayaks and our guide Katherine. The orientation and safety check were quite long - but we understood the need. We have been on kayaks before, but it was definitely set up for novices. While we absolutely loved the trip, it was a bit of a slow day for us.
We headed out going right of the beach. We had eight people in our group (4 tandem boats) and the guide. We enjoyed the company of the others and we all seemed to get along just fine.
At the end of the kayaking, we all exchanged email addresses so we could get pictures of each other.
The first half of the trip had fairly calm waters; in several places it was shallow showing some beautiful colors.
In all, we probably went in 10 or so sea caves in 3 hours. Some were small, some large, some loud, some quiet, some dark, some light... They were all different.
Several times, we saw harbor seals on the rocks, but stayed a distance away to give them space. At one point, we saw some large dorsal fins fairly far out in the water...there was no confirmation, but Minke whales were mentioned as a possibility.
The kelp forests were heavier on the second half of the trip - it was deeper water as well. The second half of the trip also got significantly windy making the kayaking harder and picture taking difficult.
In the shallow water, it was easy to see the underwater infrastructure and fish.
Most of the sea caves were experienced one at a time; if they were tunnel caves having and in and out, we would go through single file so all could experience them in their own time.
My favorite cave had underwater windows allowing light to come through and illuminate the water emerald green. Upon coming back to the beach, they allowed us a bit short of two hours to eat lunch, see the visitor center, hike, and swim/snorkel.
It made us also quickly realize that this was not somewhere you would want to hike for days; there was no shade and it was very dry.
Coming back through the campground, we spotted two island foxes. We were told that they were more like cats. Being an island, there are several species that are only found on the island and I believe the fox was one of them. When we saw them, they were browsing the campground for food. The Aquasport guides also told us about the island skunks being around...thank goodness we didn't see them!
After the hike, Rob jumped in for a quick swim. Not too many were in the water, but there were some. The 4:00 pm ferry time came quick and we were headed back to mainland. On the way back, the waters were very calm and we were much luckier than the way there. We came across two pods of dolphin - each with hundreds (one was estimated at about 400 dolphin!).
Our second sighting was two humpback whales!
Really, this was a perfect way to end a perfect trip!
It is very frustrating to know that we stepped off the ferry boat around 5:15 pm on Friday, and by Monday at 6:00 am, the National Parks were closed. It takes a great deal of planning, coordination, and money to do trips like this; and when you only get two weeks of vacation a year, timing is critical. The National Parks belong to the people; they need to be open, and stay open.
2 comments:
Wow, I'd love to see those islands. We keep talking about doing it when we're in the area but haven't done so yet.
Fantastic photos. How thrilling to see the whales. I live on the coast and seldom get to see them but when I do it is fantastic :-)
I came by to glimpse your afghan/blanket. I hope you will post some pics. I know what you mean about being a bit short. I'm wanting to make mine big enough but am running out of patience, lol.
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