Santa Cruz Island

Santa Cruz is the largest island off the coast of California. Located between Anacapa and Santa Rosa Islands, it lies from 19-25 miles off the adjacent mainland coast between Ventura and Santa Barbara.

The scenic beauty of Santa Cruz is reflected in its many landforms-two rugged mountain ranges, the highest peaks on the Channel Islands, deep canyons, a central valley, year-round springs and streams, plus 77 miles of craggy coastline cliffs, giant sea caves, pristine tidepools and expansive beaches. Lying directly on the boundary between cold northern and warm southern waters, this island hosts unique plant, animal, and marine communities representing nearly 1000 miles of coastline.

According to legend, Santa Cruz Island was named for a priest's staff accidentally left on the island during the Portola expedition of 1769. A Chumash Indian found the cross-tipped stave and returned it to the priest. The Spaniards were so impressed that they called this island of friendly people "La Isla de Santa Cruz", the Island of the Sacred Cross.

Today, Santa Cruz Island is divided between The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service. The Nature Conservancy owns and manages the western 90% of the island; the eastern 10% is owned and managed by the National Park Service.

What to See: In its vastness and variety of flora, fauna and geology, Santa Cruz Island resembles a miniature California. Geologists believe that the island never has been attached to the mainland. All three major rock types-igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic-are found throughout this rugged, mountainous island. Nestled between two mountain ranges that rise above 2,000 feet, is a pastoral Central Valley that was, and still is, being created by a major earthquake fault.

Permanent and seasonal water sources, plus a number of microclimates, support over 650 species of plants and trees in ten different plant communities, from marshes and grasslands to chaparral and pine forests. Owing to millions of years of isolation, eight of these plants are "endemic"-they grow nowhere else in the world. Springtime is a patchwork of blooming annuals, sometimes seen from the mainland as bright splashes of color.

Over 140 land bird species have been identified here. The Island scrub jay, a Santa Cruz Island endemic, is a living example of "gigantism," whereby some island animals evolve to a larger form. This bird is one-third bigger and much bluer than the mainland scrub jay. Other animals, like the island fox and spotted skunk, tend toward "dwarfism," growing smaller over the ages. Eleven other mammal species (nine bats, deer and harvest mouse) three kinds of amphibians (pacific chorus frog, black belly slender salamander, and the Channel Islands slender salamander) and five reptiles (side-blotched lizard, Southern alligator lizard, western fence lizard, western yellow belly racer and gopher snake) might be seen by the lucky visitor.

The marine life surrounding Santa Cruz is a whole other world. Porpoises, dolphins, and whales can be sighted near island shores, feeding in the wealth of kelp forests. Pinnipeds such as harbor seals and California sea lions "haul out" in isolated coves to warm themselves and seek refuge. Ragged cliffs, offshore rocks and tidepools support large colonies of breeding sea birds, shellfish, crustaceans and other shoreline plants and animals.

Santa Cruz Island has some of the largest, and deepest sea caves in the world. In the largest, known as Painted Cave because of its colorful rock types, lichens, and algae, the entrance ceiling rises upward to 160 feet. Nearly a quarter mile long and 100 feet wide, with a waterfall over its entrance in the spring, Painted Cave is breathtaking.

Many historic buildings dot the landscape of Santa Cruz and mirror tales of its inhabitants. Adobe ranch houses, barns, blacksmith and saddle shops, wineries, and a chapel all attest to the many uses of Santa Cruz in the 1800's and 1900's.

Prior to Spanish exploration and the ranching days, the island was known as "Limuw" to the resident Chumash Indians. A dozen villages housed nearly 2,000 people, many of them producing "shell-bead money" used as a major trade item by tribes throughout California. Large plank canoes, called "tomols," provided transportation between the islands and mainland. Remnants of their civilization can still be seen in thousands of "shell middens" on the island.

The protection and preservation of these resources, both natural and cultural, is the major mission of the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy, the two overseers of Santa Cruz Island. Your concern and care will help protect this rare and unique treasure for future generations to enjoy and study.