Sara and I were looking for a new adventure and found one on a trip to the channel islands off the coast of Ventura California.
We signed up with a Kayaking adventure company and showed up for a ferry ride over to one of the largest channel islands – Santa Cruz. We parked in the Harbor, got a short orientation and then waited in line for the ferry to the island.
Next it was time to board the ferry boat for our hour ride over to the island. The ocean was calm this morning with just some rollers at time, and hardly any sea life on the way over.
When we arrived at the island all we could see was a beach and dock.
Since the dock was higher than the boat we got to climb up to off the boat onto the land.
Once we were on the land we could see the beautiful “rocky” beach.
We walked with a guide toward the kayak’s in the distance and then to the camp to get setup for kayaking. We have wet suits, helmets and personal flotation devices (PFDs) man do we feel safe for Kayaking 🙂
Then it was down to the beach for some last minute instructions with our guide Dave and then into the water. We are on a double kayak and started down the coast in search of our first sea cave.
As you can see there is huge kelp beds around the island – so we were kayaking right over the top of it.
The kelp looked pretty with the sunlight reflecting off of it.
Here you can see both of us in all of our gear and a view off of the coast. We are just about to enter our first cave and had some time to pose while we waited our turn to get in. Such a great weather day with tons of sun and a light breeze to keep us cool. The water temp was about 60 degree’s.
Video of us kayaking through most of the sea caves. Our guide Dave would first show us the entry and how to do it then we would follow him in.
When we got back from Kayaking we had lunch and a island fox came by to see if there were any leftovers. This fox is unique and only found on the channel islands. He is small and very smart so we had to watch all of our food very closely.
After lunch we had time for a short hike on one of the bluffs above the beach and where we kayaked. Here you can see a view of the trail and up the coast. Annacapa island is off in the distance.
Here is a view of the beach and our ferry boat from the bluff. This entire area is protected and a National Park so the water was really clear with about 40 feet of visibility.
Here is a view from our trail down to the kelp beds and on the left, one of the first sea caves this side of the beach. It was such a beautiful day to be on the island and out on the water. We didn’t get enough time to explore the trails so we will be back for sure…
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