January 7, 2012 --- This dream came true because I found a great deal on www.groupon.com and I thought it would be a great Christmas and New Year's gift to each other. It was only $79 per person for a four-hour plane excursion to Santa Rosa Island, including a four-wheel-drive guided tour by the park's rangers on the island.
The Channel Islands include 5 islands along the California's Pacific coast: Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara island. On this trip we flew over Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands and landed over Santa Rosa island for the ranger tour.
Nathan and I booked an afternoon trip with Channel Islands Aviation because we had to drive to Camarillo Airport, which would take about 45 minutes to 1 hour from home. There were free private parking lots right in front of the building where we boarded our flight. The small plane could hold about 10 passengers including the pilot. We were allowed to bring approximately 5-10 lbs. of belongings. I would recommend everyone to bring enough water and snacks since there is no vending machine or convenient store on the rustic island.
Our small plane took off at 12:30 p.m. and it took about 25 minutes to get to Santa Rosa island. The pilot was very knowledgeable and narrated the history, landscape and current program of the islands through his microphone, and we all could hear him from our tight headphones.
Anacapa Island
Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz is the largest island of the Channel Islands. It's also my favorite of all the islands I saw from the air. The landscape was very diverse, from thick green forest to dry, desert-like mountains. If you take a boat here, it will take about 1-1.5 hours from Ventura. There are a lot of people who visit this island for camping, hiking, marine diving or snorkeling, and kayaking through the painted caves.
Santa Rosa Island
Santa Rosa island was the destination of the tour. From the air, the mountains here didn't seem as tall as those on Santa Cruz island. There is a nice, long sandy beach and green grassy hills along the coast. If you take a boat here, it would take 2.5-3 hours since they usually stop at Santa Cruz first to drop off or pick up passengers.
Once we got out of the plane, we were divided up to two groups; the first group did the four-wheel tour first, and the second group followed the ranger to Vail and Vickers Ranch at Bechers Bay. Nathan and I were in the second group, so we took about a mile hike to the ranch and learned about the people who lived on the island in the 19-20th centuries.
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| The Main House |
The Main House was built in 1855, and it is the oldest wood home in Santa Barbara County.
There is a study that indicates that humans have been using the island for more than 13,000 years. Ranchers lived here to raise sheep and cattle. For more information about this ranch, you can visit the website: http://web.vcstar.com/special/2011/islandbuild9.swf
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| A little island fox came our for lunch. |
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| The Bunkhouse |
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| The Cattle Pen |
The 4-Wheel Drive Tour
After visiting the Vail and Vickers Ranch, we switched with the fist group and went on the four-wheel drive tour led by the park ranger.Our main destination was the Torrey Pine forest. Santa Rosa island has six plant species that are found only on the island and nowhere else in the world, and the Santa Rosa Island subspecies of Torrey Pine is one of the rarest pines in the world. The ranger said that this pine can also be found at Torrey Pines State Reserve in San Diego.
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| Santa Rosa Island subspecies of Torrey Pine |
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| Torrey Pine forest |
