Channel Islands National Park

Trip Assistant

How Much Time?

You don’t just spontaneously visit Channel Islands. This one needs to be planned out. The vast majority of visitors only make daytrips to the islands (typically Anacapa or Santa Cruz), but each island has a campground for you to make an island backpacking adventure of the trip.

Unless you’re a local, what you can do will be dictated by Island Packers ferry schedule. And regardless what island(s) you visit, you’ll likely be treated to plenty of marine life along the way!

Need to Know

  • The park is open year-round. Weather is usually comfortable. High winds, fog, and rain can complicate your visit, but rarely interfere with transportation.
  • Most Island Packers tours are full-day affairs, but they also offer express tours if you’re short on time.
  • If you’re interested in camping, be sure to check camping and ferry availability at the same time. Campsites book pretty quickly for summer.
  • Campsites have food storage boxes (to keep the critters out). Use them.

Highlights

  • Kelp Forests
  • Painted Cave
  • Marine Life!
  • Sea Kayaking
  • Caliche Forest
  • Arch Rock
Attractions and outfitters are pinned on the Google Map below. Expand the sidebar (top left corner) to see the data and select/deselect layers.

Activities

  • Paddling
  • Swimming
  • Sailing
  • SCUBA Diving
  • Hiking
  • Backpacking

Favorite Trails

Moderate

*Links to AllTrails

When To Go?

Weather

Visitation

Temperature is pretty steady year-round. Winter is wetter, but bad weather rarely interrupts transportation service.

Park Map Downloads

Channel Islands National Park Map: PDF | JPG

All 63 Parks Map: PDF | JPG

West Region w/ All NPS Units: PDF | JPG

Road Trips

Helpful Tools

Below you'll see a Google Map to help plan road trips from the east (Joshua Tree), north (Sequoia), northwest (Redwood), and south (San Diego, CA). It’s a good start, but I’d highly recommend making your own. Google My Maps, Wanderlog, and TripIt are incredibly useful trip planning tools. Find what works best for you!

There’s much more to our country. Here’s another Google Map with points of interest across all types of public land.

For campers, here’s a Google Map with National Forest campgrounds. National Park campgrounds are difficult to reserve (there are about 200!). With nearly 5,000 national forest campgrounds, you can usually pull in and find a spot.