ANACAPA ISLAND
At the start of 2020, I made a simple, easy goal for myself. Ok fine, so I made like 20 goals in an iPhone note while on a long flight while alone with my thoughts and no access to wifi. But one of those goals, and one I wanted to take seriously, was to visit one new National Park in 2020. Just one. I mean, easy right? Piece of cake.
Enter: COVID. Isn’t that the story of all our lives though? I mean hey, at least it’s a collective suffering but still. While this definitely tossed a wrench into things, this was still a goal I was able to make happen over the summer of 2020.
One of the closest - if not THE closest - National Parks to Los Angeles is Channel Islands National Park. It’s only an hour drive (give or take, traffic-free) to the Oxnard ferry station so this made for an easy day trip on one of my final Summer Fridays.
Channel Islands is an interesting park in that it’s…all islands. So it seemed especially appealing to get off the mainland US if A while everything is going straight to hell anyway. Fuck all y’all, I’m going to go to a remote island about it.
Anacapa Island is the closest to the mainland with a day trip ferry route option that gives you about four hours to mill about on the island with no direction like a well-behaved Sim.
One of the first things you’ll notice upon landing is the 157 metal stairs to the top of the cliff from the landing. They will warn you about this when you buy a ferry ticket to confirm you’re physically able to scale them, but make no mistake it still sucks. Especially if you’re one of the people who insists on camping overnight with all your gear (this is also an option if you are more adventurous than I) but to each their own.
From there, it’s a complete and total free-for-all. There’s technically a Visitors’ Center which was closed when we went, and one lone (park) ranger who roams the island like the modern day version of a lighthouse keeper. His name is Sam, and though I never saw Sam throughout my visit I knew I loved him. Sam is so free on his island patrol and society’s rules cannot touch him.
For the sake of this guide, I’ll stop fantasizing about the life Sam leads and we’re gonna talk about the poop. Yes, if you go to Anacapa in the summer then you need to be prepared for the sheer amount of poop, or ~guano~ that coats the island. Every bench, every pathway, every surface is a Jackson Pollock of bird poo and you simply must deal with it. The nice thing about mandatory mask rules circa 2020 is that it provided a nice shield from my nose and the smell.
Of course with an island-wide poo blanket comes the obvious cause: birds. Thousands upon thousands of nesting seagulls. I had somebody ask me if it was worth it to go to Anacapa if they had a severe bird phobia (specific, but it happened), and I had to give my honest answer of absolutely not. I mean, if it’s a legit phobia then no scenery on this planet would be worth it. Like if somebody were to tell me hey, there’s this gorgeous island but the catch is there are millions of spiders on every surface I simply would never go except maybe to toss a couple grenades on it. My point here is that yes, there are an insane amount of seagulls here. And it’s their home, so we can’t really complain about it but summer nesting season is something to keep on your radar if you’re not a fan of birds.
The other thing about the birds is that they represent the - uh - full circle of life. You’ll see birds in every stage of life including adorable precious bby birds ready to pluck your eyes out, full grown birds ready to teach them how to pluck your eyes out, and dead birds in various stages of decay. I guess that’s raw nature though, life decaying and fertilizing the land and generating some other life growth and so on and so forth. It’s just a little shocking to be on a pleasant cliffside stroll and come across a feathered mound or a loose beak.
Aside from its flaws, I stand by the opinion that the island is worth your time. Anacapa is a total stunner.
The island is gorgeous at literally every twist and turn, there’s no other way around it. The most iconic view and the one featured on the postcards is Inspiration Point, which looks outward to the other islands that make up Anacapa. One guy on our boat made a fuckin beeline over to Inspiration Point and sat there alone and staring for three hours and that is the vibe I would like to incorporate into my day to day. This is a man who knows what he wants (inspiration) and gets after it.
When we arrived back in Oxnard sunburned and exhausted, it feels like you were just an entire world away. Like as if you had just socially-distanced from the entire country and were dragged back kicking and screaming.
So seriously, if you don’t have a bird phobia then consider Anacapa for your next day trip and support your parks. And wear sunscreen under your mesh leggings to avoid a haunting sunburn pattern, but that’s just sound advice in general.
