Catalina Island Back Country

During the summer of June 1542 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the first European to see the coastline of what is now California. He saw a land undeveloped, untamed, and left to the devices of mother nature’s flora and fauna. In 2012, the Southern California coastline is developed from Ventura to the Mexican border, leaving little left in common with what Cabrillo saw.

Enter Santa Catalina Island, 26 miles Southwest of Long Beach Harbor. Most Southern Californians are familiar with Avalon, the tourist town and only incorporated city located on any of California’s Channel Islands. Located in a valley and natural harbor, it is easy to forget that Catalina Island plays host to a back country and dozens of square miles of open, undeveloped land. From rugged beaches facing the Pacific and Hawaii thousands of miles away to extinct volcanic craters, the interior and windward side of Catalina are pretty similar to what the Spanish Conquistadors saw when they first put eyes on this area.

88% of Catalina’s land is administered by the Catalina Island Conservancy, or CIC, with the rest being operated by the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy (SCIC) or private landowners. Most of the land outside of Avalon is CIC land, and that includes virtually all of the back country and undeveloped coast line. The recently completed Trans Catalina Trail traverses the length of the island, and offers locations for back country camping. There is nowhere else in Southern California on the mainland that matches the raw, undeveloped beauty of interior Catalina. The Wrigley ranch, abandoned stage coach stops, and wind swept coastal bluffs are the main features here. Dirt roads are seldom used due to a painstaking vehicle permitting process, ensuring a level of solitude and intimacy with the land usually reserved for remote patches of BLM land far away from urban centers. An hour long boat ride and hour long jeep ride from Avalon can have one in the backcountry. It is a pretty amazing transition.