California
The Wildlife & Wonders of Channel Islands National Park
Program No. 14758RJ
Explore the pristine ecology of Channel Islands National Park, discovering a wealth of unique flora, fauna and geology as you learn the islands’ story from local naturalists.
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6 days
5 nights
12 meals
5B 3L 4D
1
Registration, Check-in, Orientation, Welcome Dinner
Ventura, California
2
Channel Islands National Park, Largomarsino Visitor Center
Ventura, California
3
Island Full-day Field Trip by Boat
Ventura, California
4
Channel Islands Lecture, Ventura Botanical Gardens
Ventura, California
5
Island Full-day Field Trip by Boat
Ventura, California
6
Wrap-up Session, Program Concludes
Ventura, California
At a Glance
Relatively untouched by modern culture, California’s Channel Islands National Park is an oasis of natural splendor. Journey by boat and experience two days inside the national park and enjoy the sea life along the way. Get up close to the island’s rich array of plant life, sea birds and mammals — some found nowhere else in the world – and explore Ventura like a local as you immerse yourself in the treasures of this region.
Activity Level
Keep the Pace
If schedule for Anacapa Island, climbing 157 stairs from pier to island plateau, about 9 flights of stairs with railings. Walking up to two miles on uneven terrain and dirt hiking trails. Travel to islands by boat, weather permitting. Getting on and off a boat.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Join local naturalists who add expert insight during expeditions to Channel Islands National Park.
- Discover how the islands’ isolation has created a unique ecosystem as you study endemic plants and geology.
- Trace the human history from the Native Chumash people to explorers, fur traders, ranchers and scientists.
General Notes
This program visits the Channel Islands two days during the week. Landing locations and islands will vary by date. Our program is planned far in advance, and the exact landing locations for 2025 will be determined when tide schedules are made available later in 2024 in conjunction with our vendor’s schedule. Boat trips to the Channel Islands are dependent on sea conditions, which can be rough, and subject to cancellation by the boat’s captain depending on ocean swell and wind conditions. Alternate plans on the mainland will be in place if an island field trip is cancelled.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Margery Spielman
Margery Spielman is an accomplished environmental artist, lecturer, naturalist and professional diver. As a scuba instructor and stunt diver, she worked underwater on numerous television productions and for many years, worked on freelance assignments for The Cousteau Society, doing research, logistics, diving, speaking and illustrating. Described as a visionary realist, she’s exhibited her artwork in major Marine Art Expos from Hawaii to Paris. For over 25 years, Margery’s been the leading Naturalist in Road Scholar’s Channel Islands programs.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Margery Spielman
View biography
Margery Spielman is an accomplished environmental artist, lecturer, naturalist and professional diver. As a scuba instructor and stunt diver, she worked underwater on numerous television productions and for many years, worked on freelance assignments for The Cousteau Society, doing research, logistics, diving, speaking and illustrating. Described as a visionary realist, she’s exhibited her artwork in major Marine Art Expos from Hawaii to Paris. For over 25 years, Margery’s been the leading Naturalist in Road Scholar’s Channel Islands programs.
Shannon Harmon
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Shannon Harmon has worked as a group leader, interpreter, and supervisor in California State Parks for 40 years, as well as a ranger interpreter with the Bureau of Land Management and a California high school teacher. She has been a Lewis and Clark enthusiast since high school, and has led Lewis and Clark groups with Road Scholar since 2011. She plays the hammered dulcimer and enjoys singing, drawing, painting, photography, sewing, and traveling.
Jenny Peterson
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Jenny Peterson has been a Road Scholar leader since 2009, and has led over 80 programs including Signature City, Grandparent/Grandchild, National Park, and Afloat programs. Jenny hails from Minnesota originally, but now is a Florida resident. However, most of her Road Scholar programs are in California, so she splits her time almost equally between these three states. She celebrated her 40th wedding anniversary in 2023, and has four grown children. Her hobbies include travel, walking, biking, and playing bridge.
Keri Dearborn
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Keri Dearborn is the education director for Friends of the Island Fox and has been with the organization since its founding in 2005. She holds a master’s degree in environmental education and developed FIF’s school and community education outreach program. Keri has taught on the subjects of insects, amphibians, reptiles, and local whales and dolphins for a UCLA Extension course in zoology. As a published author and poet, Keri blogs on sustainability issues and Southern California wildlife on AnimalBytes.net.
Ken McAlpine
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Ken McAlpine is an award-winning author who has written for various magazines ranging including National Geographic, winning three Lowell Thomas awards — travel writing's top award. Ken was born in Hong Kong and spent his childhood in Southeast Asia. He continued to travel throughout his life while writing, working on assignments from diving with white sharks to running the Inca trail to Machu Picchu. Ken currently lives in Ventura and likes to stand in his yard at night, looking at the stars.
Terri Blake Dano
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Terri Blake Dano is an eighth-generation Californian who earned a B.A. from Cal State Chico. Her three-decade career in the garment industry has taken her across the country and to many European capitals, and she has explored the globe for both business and pleasure. She lives in Santa Monica with her husband, Rick, but spends equal time in Lake Tahoe. She lives an active lifestyle and enjoys skiing, hiking, biking, paddle boarding, and kayaking with family and friends.
Susan Morris
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Susan Morris has been conducting historical research involving the Channel Islands since 1987. With a bachelor’s in journalism and a certificate in archaeology, she has participated in field studies on seven of the eight Channel Islands. She was the principal investigator of a cave-associated archaeology survey on Santa Rosa Island. Passionate about solving historical mysteries, her focus of the past eight years has been historical research for the Island of the Blue Dolphins website, hosted by Channel Islands National Park.
Colleen Delaney
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Dr. Colleen Delaney is an associate professor of anthropology at CSU Channel Islands. She earned her Ph.D. and master’s in archaeological anthropology from UCLA, and a bachelor’s in anthropology with a minor in museum studies from Beloit College. As an anthropologist, she is committed to teaching all students the value of critical thinking, cultural awareness, and cultural understanding in the global world of today. As a broadly trained anthropologist, her research interests are diverse and interdisciplinary.
Karyn Benkendorfer
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Karyn Benkendorfer is a native Californian who has a B.A. in communications arts – film and television from Loyola Marymount University. She is also a graduate of ITMI’s International tour management program. Karyn is a passionate storyteller, photographer, writer, and teacher. She is energized by engaging with people, sharing stories and experiences. On her daily walks, she logs 5-8 miles. She is an active volunteer with Opera League Los Angeles.
Suggested Reading List
(13 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
The Wildlife & Wonders of Channel Islands National Park
Program Number: 14758
California's Channel Islands: A History
The Channel Islands, a string of eight islands off the coast of Southern California, are home to stunning landscapes and remarkable biodiversity. This scholarly work covers ecology as well as natural and human history.
Images of America: Ventura
Local historian Jackson covers the history of Ventura, California, from the dedication of Mission San Buenaventura to its present status as the Gateway to the Channel Islands and home to more than 100,000. Includes archival photos.
Natural History of the Islands of California
Islands have always been fascinating places, their separateness evoking a sense of mystery and inspiring a yearning for exploration. California's islands are unique evolutionary laboratories, places where plants and animals have grown and interacted in isolation for millions of years. This comprehensive book discusses both the human and the natural history of the islands of California, including all eight Channel Islands, Año Nuevo, the Farallons, and the islands of San Francisco Bay. It is also useful as a field guide for visitors, and details on reaching the islands are contained in the first chapter.
The authors explore the formation of the islands; discuss the history of human habitation, beginning with the Native Americans who first visited the islands 12,000 years ago; and provide a thorough introduction to the marine and terrestrial biotas of the islands. The authors also discuss past damage and ongoing threats to island ecosystems, including devastation caused by the introduction of non-native animals and plants. Large herbivorous animals in particular have caused considerable damage, since island plants evolved in the absence of herbivores and therefore have no defenses against them.
California: A History (Modern Library Chronicles)
Arguing that America’s most populous state has always been blessed with both spectacular natural beauty and astonishing human diversity, Starr unfolds a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph.
For generations, California’s native peoples basked in the abundance of a climate and topography eminently suited to human habitation. By the time the Spanish arrived in the early sixteenth century, there were scores of autonomous tribes were thriving in the region. Though conquest was rapid, nearly two centuries passed before Spain exerted control over upper California through the chain of missions that stand to this day.
The discovery of gold in January 1848 changed everything. With population increasing exponentially as get-rich-quick dreamers converged from all over the world, California reinvented itself overnight. Starr deftly traces the successive waves of innovation and calamity that have broken over the state since then–the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons and the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the heroic irrigation and transportation projects that have altered the face of the region; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace.
Islands Apart: A Year on the Edge of Civilization
Author Ken McAlpine stands in his front yard one night in Ventura, California, trying to see the stars. His view is diminished by light pollution, making it hard to see much of anything in the sky. Our fast-paced, technologically advanced society, he concludes, is not conducive to stargazing or soul-searching. Taking a page from Thoreau's Walden, he decides to get away from the clamor of everyday life, journeying alone through California's Channel Islands National Park. There, he imagines, he might be able to "breathe slowly and think clearly, to examine how we live and what we live for." What he discovers about himself and the world we live in will inspire anyone who wishes they had the time to slow down and notice the wonders of nature and humanity.
Ken McAlpine is an award-winning travel writer whose work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Outside, Reader's Digest, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of Off-Season: Discovering America on Winter's Shore. He lives with his family in Ventura, California.
Channel Islands National Park
A National Geographic Trails Illustrated map of the Channel Islands at a scale of 1:25,000. Waterproof, durable and tear-resistant, it is the perfect map to take along to the islands.
Justinian Caire and Santa Cruz Island: The Rise and Fall of a California Dynasty
One of the fabled Channel Islands of Southern California, Santa Cruz was once the largest privately owned island off the coast of the continental United States. This multifaceted account traces the island’s history from its aboriginal Chumash population to its acquisition by The Nature Conservancy at the end of the twentieth century. The heart of the book, however, is a family saga: the story of French émigré Justinian Caire and his descendants, who owned and occupied the island for more than fifty years. The author, descended from Caire, uses family archives unavailable to earlier historians to recount the full, previously untold story.
The author looks at the family’s daily life on the island from the mid-nineteenth into the twentieth century. This epic contains tragic elements, as well. Family diaries and letters enable Chiles to tell the story of an intensely private clan and its struggle to hold an island dynasty together.
A Guide to East Santa Cruz Island: Road, Trails, Routes, Scrambles, Landslides
Don Morris's travel tips and authoritative accounts of the trails and routes available on East Santa Cruz Island, one of five islands preserved in the Channel Islands National Park, enable the hiker to enjoy this remote and beautiful island to the fullest. The legislation which established the CINP in 1980 emphasized the park's outstanding breeding grounds for seals and sea lions, beautiful and productive tide pools and kelp forests, and fabulous habitat for sea birds as well as its thousands of archeological sites, plants and animals that are found nowhere else.
Don Morris retired in 2001 from the National Park Service after serving for sixteen years as Park Archeologist at Channel Islands National Park, his final posting in a forty year National Park Service career. While at CINP, he had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the park on foot, by kayak, by plane and helicopter to acquire the knowledge presented in this guidebook.
Santa Cruz Island: A History of Conflict and Diversity
In this thorough history of the largest Channel Island, Gherini introduces the Chumash Indians who lived on the island in pre-Columbian times and details early European explorers and the Spanish-Mexican period, when the island became a haven for smugglers.
California the Beautiful
Rowell's exquisite photographs are accompanied by excerpts from Joan Didion, M.F.K. Fisher, Jack London, William Saroyan and many other luminaries in this celebration of the nature and spirit of California.
The Golden Shore, California's Love Affair With the Sea
In this eminently readable and well-researched tribute, Helvarg, an environmental journalist and filmmaker, considers the crosscurrents of culture, history, economy and myth that come together on the state’s golden shores.
National Audubon Society Field Guide to California
A compact, easy-to-use guide to 1,000 California trees, wildflowers, mammals, insects, birds and other flora and fauna.
Images of America: The California Channel Islands
Every day, thousands of Southern California residents see the California Channel Islands on the horizon, yet few can name all eight. Santa Catalina Island, third largest, is by far the best known. It is the only island with a city, Avalon, where dozens of hotels, shops, and restaurants await visitors year-round. Three of the islands are owned by the US Navy: San Clemente, San Nicolas, and San Miguel. Five islands fall within the boundaries of Channel Islands National Park: San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara Islands. Close to the mainland and yet worlds apart, scenic day trips and primitive camping opportunities are available on all five park islands.
Cultural anthropologist and author Marla Daily of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation has spent her career researching the histories of all eight islands. The California Historical Society bestowed upon Daily its Distinguished Service Award for her extraordinary service and dedicated efforts in preserving Channel Islands history.