A few months after our trip to Maui and visiting National Park #40 (Haleakalā ), Leann asked the question that launched numerous adventures. How many National Parks have we visited? This was followed by how many are there? Once we decided to visit the rest of the National Parks trip planning became a lot easier. Case in point: Leann was looking at a road map and saw Channel Islands National Park off the coast of California. Turns out January is a nice time to visit so we scheduled a trip over New Year. Not too far away was Joshua Tree National Park so we also stopped there.
Itinerary: direct flight to Vegas and get out of town as quickly as possible. We headed to the Condor Sanctuary with hopes of seeing one of those magnificent birds. Then headed to Ventura to get the ferry ride to Channel Islands. Back on the mainland for New Year’s followed by Joshua Tree and a return trip to Mojave National preserve. Lots to see in a week.Condor sanctuary: rugged country, great weather and not one damn CondorLeann still searchingLenticular Cloud
On to Ventura
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and our room overlooked the Marina. This was very convenient since the ferry to the island left from the same harbor.Many of the sailboats had Christmas lights hung from their masts.We had reservations for Santa Cruz Island which is the biggest of the chain. We picked it for good camping and hiking.Our ride to the island. The trip takes an hour but they will detour for various marine animal sightings. Whales will delay the trip.Just by luck we visited during migration and were lucky enough to see 3 whalesSea Lions were saying goodbye as we exited the marinaScorpion Anchorage: this is our drop off and pick up point. After arriving you have to listen to a ranger give the rules, it was not too painful. I ask the question: we were on the boat for an hour, why not cover the rules then?Our camp for 2 nights, the campground was very nice and very quiet. No fires are allowed since there are giant Eucalyptus trees in the campground and one spark could ignite all of them. Island Fox: AKA little thieves. These were one of the things we were warned about when landing. Do not leave anything out because they will steal it, leave your tent zipper up. If you leave it down they can push it up with their nose and get into your tent and wreak havocThey are not shy.We kept all gear and food in the “fox box”. These are actually old bear boxes that are now being used to deter fox. The idiot behind us left his food out and went for a hike. A lot of it was gone when he got back.We did a day hike to Potato Harbor and then Leann got an idea to go off trail and head back via Scorpion Canyon. What could go wrong?View on the way to Cavern PointLeann at Cavern PointPotato Harbor, from here we headed off trail in hope of going back another way..OK, so maybe off trail was not our best decision of the tripThis does not look any better but we kept goingBack on the trail at lastThe sun was setting but we did make it back to camp before total darkness but not by much. I would love to say we were prepared and had headlights, nope.Day hike to Smugglers CoveThere are not many trees to block the views.You can see Santa Barbara and Anacapa Islands in the distanceA lot of the hikes are on roads that are leftover from the old ranch. We are almost to the cove.Smugglers Cove, we were the only one’s there
The hike back, first part is all uphillLast day: we did a short day hike and then headed back to pack up and wait for the ferryLeann at Scorpion Rock
This is the beach near where the ferry docksEucalyptus Tree, these are very flammable so no liquid fuel stoves are allowed in the parkWe fired up the stove for a hot drink and waited for the ferryHeaded back to the mainland on New Year’s Eve. We agreed to come back for another trip. Hotel, shower and then on to Joshua TreeOne of the few National Parks I visited before Leann. Flash back: I was on a business trip and was staying in Palm Springs. I was a fish out of water: I pulled up to the resort where the meeting was held in my little rental car and felt like Jed Clampett. Everyone attending had there own little Hacienda, best place ever for a business trip. On day 2 there was a golf outing. I looked at a map and decided to drive to Joshua Tree and not play golf. For some reason I was the only one that did not golf.I was not expecting snow on the ground, maybe it was going to be colder than we thoughtMore snow. Uh OhJoshua Tree is know for it’s unique rock formations.Skull RockWe did a hike up Ryan’s MountainLeann got a picture of me on the high wireI took this picture from the high wire, yeah rightCholla cactus, these are nasty little bastards..very sharpJoshua TreeOne of many rock formations in the park that are popular with climbersThis is the most famous rock in the park: intersection rock. This is the rock that attracted climbers and started the climbing boom in the park. We knew it was going to be cold at night so we went into town and hit a few stores in search of fire wood. Good call it got down to 19 degrees. No problem when we are in the tent but it was nice to eat dinner by the fire. Major problem: an idiot camping close to us got cold and got into his truck and started the engine to stay warm. The engine kept stalling and he kept restarting. This went on for a few hours until a ranger stopped him.We really liked the campground but it was very noisy which is typical of a campground near a town.On the way back to Vegas we stopped by Amboy CraterLava fieldAmboy is know for it’s very symmetrical cylinder cone. The cone is estimated to be 79,000 years old.Last stop for the day was a return trip to Mojave PreserveWe did a hike on the Kelso Sand Dunes, the dunes cover 45 square milesThe night before our flight home we stayed at the Hotel Nipton.
Channel Islands was the highlight of this trip and we will be going back.
