Channel Islands National Park
The Channel Islands are not one of the state’s most frequented National Parks, but those who visit come away charmed by islands that are at the same time utterly unique and typically Californian. Pint-sized foxes at the top of the islands’ food chain display an unnerving (but adorable) lack of care about humans, or indeed any other threat; on Santa Cruz Island and that island alone, the island scrub-jay catches the eye with its bigger, bolder size and color. Typical California coastal plants abound, but the climate of the islands is similar to that of the California of millenia past, and populations of plants extinct elsewhere in the state can still be found dotted around.
Meanwhile, the geology of the islands themselves lend a dramatic background to any visit. Walk up the beds of the creeks to discover dramatic crumbling chert and cliffs of diatomaceaous earth, or kayak around the islands’ famous sea caves.
Getting to the Channel Islands from the San Francisco Bay Area
The Channel Islands are accessible only by boat. The park concessionaire boats are operated by Island Packers, and leave from either their Ventura or Oxnard harbor facilities.
Unfortunately, an Uber/Lyft/taxi ride is necessary to bridge the approximately 5-mile distance from the Ventura train station (or 8-mile distance from the Oxnard train station) for trips out of the Ventura Harbor. At time of writing, the fare is approximately $15-20 each way.
Getting to and from the Central Coast
Amtrak offers once-daily trains to the area on the Coast Starlight, and several daily bus-plus-train options on the Pacific Surfliner. In practice, there are two options worth considering: an overnight bus, or a day spent riding the train – or, perhaps, taking one down and the other back up.
The overnight bus
On the way down to Ventura, the bus departs the East Bay around 10:00pm, picking up in San Francisco and San José on its way down to Santa Barbara. It arrives at Santa Barbara after intermediate stops throughout the night at around 6:30am, timed to meet with a Pacific Surfliner train for the remaining 45-minute trip to Ventura.
The bus operates the same pattern back up, with a quick 45-minute trip to Santa Barbara by train followed by an overnight bus ride arriving in San José around 4:30am and finishing in the East Bay just past 6:00am.
For those able to sleep in any environment, this is undoubtably the superpowered bus of traveling up and down the California Coast. You can go home from work on a Friday night, pack your backpack, and wake up in time to catch the ferry on Saturday morning, then spend a night on the island before getting home in time for work on Monday morning.
However, the buses themselves are not designed for overnight service. The seats are rather narrow, and poorly designed for sleeping, even if you get lucky and get a pair of seats to yourself. An eye mask is almost mandatory, and a neck pillow would be a good item to bring along.
The Coast Starlight
The Coast Starlight is one of Amtrak’s premier trains. After a morning departure from the Bay Area (around 9:00am from the East Bay, or 10:30am from the South Bay), the train heads south through the fields and sloughs of the Monterey Bay Area, up the Salinas Valley, and down the steep hills into San Luis Obispo before breaking off from the route of paved roads along the coast of Vandenburg. Finally arriving at Oxnard at 7:20pm, the train ride is a veritable trip in and of itself.
From the station to the harbor
Depending on which ferry you book, there are two feasible options for getting to the ferry harbor from the train station. Unfortunately, the Ventura/Oxnard area has particularly sparse transit services.
Ventura Ferry Terminal
The Ventura Ferry Terminal is located near the far end of the Ventura Harbor. Its isolated location means that apart from walking two-plus hours, the only feasible option to get there is an Uber/Lyft or taxi. At time of writing, the 4.7-mi journey from the Ventura Amtrak station was quoted at approximately $15; from the Oxnard Amtrak station, the 8.3-mi journey was quoted at approximately $22.
Oxnard Ferry Terminal
The Oxnard Ferry Terminal is located at the fittingly-named Channel Islands Harbor. The Oxnard Ferry Terminal hosts fewer trips than the main Ventura terminal, but many of the trips to smaller Anacapa Island leave from Oxnard.
The Oxnard Ferry Terminal is a 1.7-mi (40-minute) walk from the nearest bus stop on Gold Coast Transit line 5. When choosing between an Uber/Lyft and taking the bus, pay attention to the departure time of your ferry, as the bus runs infrequently.
Getting to the Islands
Most ferries leave from the Ventura Ferry Terminal in the morning. The most-visited island, Santa Cruz Island, is a little over an hour’s ride from the mainland; departure times depend on the time of year. When taking the overnight bus down (arriving in Ventura at 7:39am), a 9:00am ferry departure would probably provide enough time to hail a ride to the terminal in time for the 45-minute preboard arrival time, but a 10:00am ferry departure would be much more comfortable. Camping gear gets loaded separately and before passengers, so it is important to be at the terminal the indicated amount of time before departure, especially if camping.
The more unusual the time of year, or the more unusual the destination island, the fewer dates and times are offered. Several Santa Cruz Island ferries leave in the morning, with often up to a 8:00am, 9:00am, and 10:00am run, with a later 2:00pm run on peak days; however, those later runs are not always offered.
Learn more about the Island Packer ferries on their website »
Staying on the Islands
Each island offers year-round campgrounds, all of it located at least some walking distance from the docks. Spots on the ferry tend to book up before campground spots do, so you are required to have booked your ferry ticket before booking your campsite.
Learn more about Channel Islands camping on the National Parks website »
