Frommer's National Parks of the American West - Don Laine [111]
Picnic & Camping Supplies
The closest grocery store to the national park is the convenience store at the gas station in the White's City complex, at the intersection of U.S. 62/180 and N. Mex. 7, about 7 miles from the visitor center. You'll find a good variety of stores in the city of Carlsbad, including an Albertson's grocery store, 808 N. Canal St., at West Church Street (☎ 505/885-2161), that has a well-stocked deli and bakery.
Nearby Attractions
Many visitors to Carlsbad Caverns also spend time at nearby Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which is discussed in chapter 20.
11
CHANNEL ISLANDS NATIONAL PARK
by Eric Peterson
ARUSTED WINDMILL WATCHES OVER SCORPION RANCH ON THE eastern end of Santa Cruz Island, a reminder of man's impact on even our wildest places. It is but one of an extensive array of archaeological and historic sites in this national park.
But the Channel Islands are still defined more by the sea and the wind than anything else. On land, the dry grasses and shrubs remain constantly in motion, mimicking the white-capped water of the Santa Barbara Channel that separates the islands from the mainland. These waters contain a diversity of life matched by few places on earth.
Although they make up one of America's less visited national parks, the Channel Islands offer plenty of reasons to keep visitors coming back. Opportunities for sea kayaking and hiking are numerous, you'll find plants and animals that live nowhere else, and archaeological remains serve as reminders of long-vanished cultures. It's also a draw for underwater explorers from all over—twice as many people come here to explore the waters around the islands as ever set foot on the shore.
Channel Islands National Park encompasses the five northernmost islands of an eight-island chain: Santa Barbara, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel. (The park does not include Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and San Nicolas.) Not limited to the islands themselves, the park also encompasses 1 nautical mile of ocean around each island, and the 6 nautical miles around each island have been designated a national marine sanctuary. The smallest of the park's islands, tiny Santa Barbara, lives a solitary existence off by itself. The four northern islands cluster in a 40-mile-long chain. During the last ice age, before the continental ice sheets melted, driving up the level of the sea, these islands were connected in one huge island that geologists now call Santarosae.
Although it was once theorized that the Channel Islands broke off the California coast some 600,000 years ago, geologists now believe that the three northwesternmost islands, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel, are an extension of the southern traverse range of Baja California and were never connected to the mainland. Anacapa and Santa Barbara are both products of underwater volcanic activity.
Flora & Fauna. The isolation of the Channel Islands has allowed a diverse array of life to develop and evolve, prompting some biologists to dub the islands the "North American Galápagos." Most of the differences from mainland species are in size, shape, or color variation. Perhaps the most curious of the islands' former inhabitants was the pygmy mammoth, only 4 to 6 feet tall, which roamed over Santarosae during the Pleistocene era—fossilized remains have been found on San Miguel and Santa Rosa.