This Beautiful West Coast National Park Is Best Known As America's Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands are a renowned destination for wildlife lovers and it's near the top of many a traveler's bucket list. But given its remote location, first-time visitors to the Galapagos Islands should know it can take a lot of time and money to get there. Instead, consider Channel Islands National Park. Set 25 miles off the coast of Southern California, it is known as the Galapagos Islands of North America thanks to its unique ecosystem and natural beauty.

Designated as a national park in 1980, the park encompasses five of the eight islands that make up the Channel Islands archipelago — Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara. The waters around the islands are also marine protected areas. Given their isolation, these islands often showcase incredible biodiversity and can be the only place on the planet where you can find certain animal and plant species. When it comes to the Channel Islands, there are an impressive 145 species that can only be found there.

One species is the island fox. It shares its ancestry with the gray fox on the mainland, but it has evolved to be quite a lot smaller — around just four pounds and the size of a small housecat. Each island actually has its own fox subspecies with variations in things like tail, ear, and leg length. If you want a good chance to see these cute animals, make sure to visit Santa Cruz Island, the largest of island in the national park.

The continued presence of the island fox in the Channel Islands National Park represents a conservation success. Their population was down to under 100, and they were listed as an endangered species. It took to a multi-pronged approach — including breeding foxes in captivity and eradicating the non-native feral pigs, which descended from farm pigs brought to the islands in the 1850s and were particularly damaging to the islands' delicate ecosystem — but there's now over 2,000 island foxes roaming the landscape, like they've done for thousands of years.

San Clemente Island has conservation success stories as well. In 2023, five species endemic to San Clemente Island were removed from the endangered species list. Four plant species, including San Clemente Island paintbrush, which blooms in early spring, and the San Clemente Bell's sparrow have all had their populations rebound.

Along with getting a chance to see the once-endangered sparrow when you visit the Chanell Islands National Park, serious bird watchers know that Santa Cruz Island as the only place in the world to see the rare island scrub jay. The park is pretty much a birder's paradise — it has bald eagles, Brandt's cormorants, a large colony of Scripps's murrelets, and a nesting population of California brown pelicans, and more.

Along with wildlife spotting, the Channel Islands National Park has great hiking and camping — all five islands have one established campsite with pit toilets and picnic tables and there are also backcountry camping options — so be sure to pack your best camping gear. To explore the waters around the islands, bring a kayak or take a tour with Channel Islands Adventure Company to see some of the islands' amazing sea caves. The park also has some sensational scuba diving and snorkeling.

To get there, book a ride with Island Packers Cruises out of Ventura Harbor, with options including day and overnight trips. The ferry runs most frequently to Anacapa Island and Santa Cruz Island; it takes about an hour to get to both. It takes 3-4 hours to get to the other islands, and ferry service is only available from late spring to fall. As you make the journey, keep an eye on the ocean. You may see whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and more.

Make sure to plan ahead — there isn't water or food available, the only way around is on foot, and there's limited, if any, cell phone service. There is the NPS App that you can download before your trip to use offline that has information on the park, self-guided tours, and interactive maps. But with a bit of forethought and planning, you'll be ready to have a memorable national park experience.