{"id":1138,"date":"2016-01-02T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2016-01-02T08:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/?p=1138"},"modified":"2022-11-14T10:07:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T18:07:02","slug":"santa-cruz-island-hiking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/trails\/santa-cruz-island-hiking\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Cruz Island Hiking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Santa-Cruz-Isle-Cavern-Point-300x225.jpg\" rel=\"prettyPhoto[gallery-aZsk]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1143\" title=\"Santa-Cruz-Isle-Cavern-Point-300x225\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Santa-Cruz-Isle-Cavern-Point-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a>Day-trippers who board an<a href=\"http:\/\/www.islandpackers.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Island Packers<\/a> boat from Ventura Harbor and land at Scorpion Anchorage will typically have about five hours on Santa Cruz Island. Hikers have a choice of three trails, which can be combined to fashion hikes of various lengths. My favorites:<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Santa Cruz Island: Cavern Point<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><em><strong>From Scorpion Anchorage to Cavern Point is 1.2 miles round trip with 300-foot elevation gain<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The short, but steep, climb on Cavern Point Trail leads the hiker to a stunning viewpoint. Look for seals and sea lions bobbing in the waters around the point, as well as cormorants, pigeon guillemots and black oyster-catchers swooping along the rugged volcanic cliffs.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/SCruz-Isle-trail-sign-Potato-harbor-150x150.jpg\" rel=\"prettyPhoto[gallery-aZsk]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1144\" title=\"SCruz-Isle-trail-sign-Potato-harbor-150x150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/SCruz-Isle-trail-sign-Potato-harbor-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><strong>Santa Cruz Island: Potato Harbor<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><em><strong>From Scorpion Anchorage to Potato Harbor is 4.5 miles round trip with 300-foot elevation gain<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The jaunt to Potato Harbor begins on a right-forking road just beyond the upper end of the campground. After a heart-stirring half-mile climb, the road levels and heads west.<\/p>\n<p>This hike parallels the mainland coast so it\u2019s fun to look back at the cities and civilization you left behind\u2014a unique perspective indeed. Two miles out a spur trail leads oceanward to an overlook of the distinctly tater-shaped cove backed by rugged cliffs.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Santa Cruz Island: Smugglers Cove<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><em><strong>From Scorpion Anchorage to Smugglers Cove is 7 miles round trip with 500-foot elevation gain<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The signed dirt road to Smugglers Cove climbs east then west as it passes a cypress grove. At the two-mile mark, a spur trail leads to San Pedro Point, a worthy destination for the time-short hiker.<\/p>\n<p>The road descends to an airstrip, then down to the beach. Note the century-old eucalyptus and olive trees in the vicinity of Smugglers Cove.<\/p>\n<p>An optional return route is by way of Scorpion Canyon Trail, which travels through the habitat of the Santa Cruz scrub jay, a bird that\u2019s about 30 percent bigger and a much brighter blue than its mainland cousin, and found nowhere else in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Interested in more hikes on Santa Cruz Island? Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/product\/hike-the-channel-islands\/\">HIKE the Channel Islands<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take a hike on Santa Cruz Island, part of Channel Islands National Park. The Trailmaster&#8217;s favorite hiking trails include Cavern Point, Potato Harbor and Scorpion Canyon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,99],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetrailmaster.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}