A Day Trip to Channel Islands National Park with kids

Channel Islands National Park makes a perfect day trip for the whole family. We went there with kids and this is what it was like.

This spring when we headed down to Southern California to visit some family we decided to do a little excursion to Channel Islands National Park on the same trip.

Channel Islands is one of the lesser known of California’s national parks and mostly because it is not very easily accessible. We have been in California for over ten years now and don’t hear people talking about it much. But the islands are very beautiful and they are absolutely worth a visit.

We did a day trip to Channel Islands National Park with kids and we had an amazing time!

CHANNEL ISLANDS NATIONAL PARK

Channel Islands are an island group of 8 islands off the California coast, right by Santa Barbara. 5 of these islands belong to the Channel Islands National Park.

These islands are part of one of the richest marine ecosystems of the world, and many endemic species live both in the water and on land.

In the past, the Chumash and Tongva Indians lived on the islands, and later they were used mostly for fishing. Some are in military use today.

The islands belonging to the national park are inhabited, but all of them can be visited by an organised boat trip. Two of them can also be reached by plane. About 70 000 people visit them every year.

The main visitor center for Channel Islands National Park is in Ventura, and you can board a boat going to the islands either in Ventura or in Oxnard. Ventura is about 2 hours drive from Los Angles.

You can see the islands from the mainland for example in Ventura or in Santa Barbara, and we have also seen them from up in the air on our way to Hawaii.

You should make a boat reservation if you want to visit the Channel Islands, rather than just show up since the cruises fill up fast. 

Visit to Anacapa Island

We visited Anacapa Island. The most visited island is the biggest island, Santa Cruz, but at this time they were experiencing a wild fire there. Trips are also made to San Miguel and Santa Rosa islands.

In many ways Anacapa Island sounded more suitable for us, since it was easy to access even while carrying a baby.

The brochures warned us about the ladder that we would have to climb to get out of the boat, and about the 157 steps that would take us up to the island. But in reality, the ladder was only one or two steps and the crew was there to help people. And the steps were not that bad when the baby was in the carrier backpack. 

It usually takes about an hour to get to Anacapa Island, but we stopped a couple of times to watch the dolphins swimming behind our boat and to spot some whales. Also, both when arriving and leaving, the boat went slowly around the island to show us what it looks like from the water.

In that sense I can only say that we really loved the Island Packers for giving us what we payed for. They didn’t seem to be in a rush and they really took their time trying to make sure everyone saw the whales. And note that this was not a whale watching trip. We were lucky to see some grey whales in both directions.  

The island was really beautiful. Some spring flowers had started to bloom and seagulls were in their nests. There were a lot of seagulls, from the further away it almost looked like the whole island was full of golf balls.

Among the seagulls we also saw some California brown pelicans that used to be endangered. Since the islands were designated as part of the national park the species normally breeding only in this area has recovered. You can find them along the coast all the way from Mexico to Vancouver, Canada.

Another species local to these same areas is Brandt’s cormorant which are the black birds in our photos.

We were on shore about four hours which gave us time to walk around the island, enjoy the sun, have a picnic and feed the baby.

There are no services on Anacapa Island, but they do have a small visitor center opened by the ranger who travelled with us, and some restrooms.

There is also couple old coast guard buildings and a lighthouse. We love visiting old lighthouses so first we were excited about Anacapa Island Lighthouse. But this lighthouse is still in use, and you have to stay a certain distance from it, since the fog horn can damage your hearing. So we weren’t able to visit this one.

California has many beautiful lighthouses that are open for visitors such as Point Pinos, Point Cabrillo, Point Reyes and our personal favorite Point Arena Lighthouse.

When travelling to Anacapa, you should bring enough snacks and water with you, and be prepared to take all the trash back to the mainland yourself. And don’t forget the sunscreen!

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Boats to the Channel Islands leave early in the morning so we decided to stay the night in Ventura. That way we only had to drive to the harbour. We stayed in Clocktower Inn Ventura.

You can also camp and stay the night at Anacapa and just book your return for the next day. That actually sounds like so much fun! You can check the time tables for boats from the Island Packers website.

And if you are wondering wether you can travel there with a baby; yes you can! Everything went well and our baby took her naps in the rocking boat and in the backpack. Our 5 year old was excited to fill her Junior Ranger activity book on the way back from the island. 

You can find our tips for hiking with kids from here.

California has total of nine national parks and out of all of them, Channel Islands is definitely a unique one. In every possible way we had a great day there!