Smugglers Cove (Santa Cruz Island)
Channel Islands National Park · near Ventura (mainland departure) · Central Coast
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- strenuous
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 7.5 miles
- Elevation gain
- 1,400 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Year-round (spring for wildflowers, calmest seas summer/fall)
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No hiking permit, but access requires a boat: Island Packers ferry from Ventura to Scorpion Anchorage (reserve well ahead). No services on the island — bring all water and food. The park is free; the ferry is the cost and the constraint.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 2 of 5
What is here
- Features
- California's 'Galápagos' · Boat access only · Hidden cove & olive grove · Endemic island fox
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Book the Island Packers ferry from Ventura well in advance, especially for summer weekends — the boat is the bottleneck. Bring far more water than you think you need; there's none on the trail. Watch for the endemic island fox around Scorpion Anchorage — they're remarkably bold. The channel crossing often has dolphins and, in season, whales.
The guide
Channel Islands National Park is one of the least-visited national parks in the country precisely because you can only reach it…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Smugglers Cove (Santa Cruz Island) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.023, -119.541