September 5, 2011

September 5, 2011

From Simi Valley, CA we drove next door to the Visitor Center for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. This NRA encompasses the whole coastal mountain range west of LA and is a hodgepodge of various state, national and local parks.

We have a time crunch so we decide to do mostly a driving tour. We stop first at Paramount Ranch. This is an old studio property that the National Park now owns. The Santa Monica Mountains have been the backdrop for countless movies. We walk around an old western set that is looking pretty shabby. The surrounding hills look, for good reason, like the mountains in the TV show MASH.

We then drove south along Malibu Canyon to the ocean. There we followed the Pacific Coast Highway past the Malibu coastline. It is beautiful but crowded. We finished at the harbor in Oxnard.

At 1:30 we caught a boat to Channel Islands National Park. This park consists of several islands just off the coast. We chose to be dropped off at Anacapa, the closest and smallest of the group. It takes an hour for this slow barge to traverse the ten miles. It was also a bumpy ride. We forgot the Dramamine. Aimee and I both looked at each other wondering who would get sick first.

Anacapa is a five-mile long spine of rock jutting out of the ocean. Sheer cliffs completely surround it. Isolated from California, different and unusual plants grow here. We hike to each end.

Most of the rocky island is completely covered with a carpet of ice plants, a fleshy groundcover with pretty flowers. There is also a strange kind of stunted tree called coreopsis that looks dead but is really just hibernating till the next rainfall. The one negative is the stench. It is a major breeding ground for pelicans and sea gulls.

Our return trip to shore is packed, overloaded in my mind. We added a dozen people who camped overnight, all their gear, and six large kayaks. Looking for a smoother ride, we got seats at the stern.