Gallery: San Miguel Island: Home to Amazing Animals, Weird Plants, and Spooky Remnants of an Ancient Forest
01harris-point
[San Miguel Island](http://www.nps.gov/chis/planyourvisit/san-miguel-island.htm) is the most westerly of California's northern Channel Islands, a dolphin-shaped wedge that sits 60 miles from Ventura harbor. Mostly a plateau, San Miguel is nearly impossible to see from the mainland except on a very clear day. But here, behind the mist, a seldom-visited, harsh and enchanting world awaits. The Pacific Ocean unleashes the brunt of its bad weather on the 8-mile long smear of land: Unrelenting winds and thick, wet fog not only hide the island from mainland eyes, but make it a tough place to get to. The seas separating San Miguel from the mainland can be some of the roughest in the northern hemisphere. Once ashore, tents that aren't tied down have been known to blow away, and when the wind is really whipping up, even staying on the narrow trails takes some effort. When the wind is calmer, the fog settles in, pressing its dewy fingerprints into the island's mounds and canyons. San Miguel is undeniably magical. Long after you've left, its remote and rugged hand tugs you back to its beautiful, uninhabited shores. From afar, the wailing winds winnow to a teasing whisper, promising exquisite desolation and splendid solitude. As long as 11,000 years ago, the island was a home to California's [native Chumash](http://www.nps.gov/chis/historyculture/nativeinhabitants.htm), a people whose presence still lingers, in the form of crushed sea shells and bony trash piles. More recently, the nearly tree-free mesa found itself hosting hunters, sheep ranchers, and the U.S. Navy, before becoming [a national park](http://www.nps.gov/chis/index.htm) in 1980. Many who've lived on the island didn't want to leave. In 1942, resident sheep rancher Herbert Lester -- the self-proclaimed "[King of San Miguel](http://www.amazon.com/Legendary-Miguel-Elizabeth-Sherman-Lester/dp/0874610273)" is said to have taken his own life when faced with eviction by the Navy, in part because he couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Now, the island is a temporary home for researchers and the park rangers who staff a solar and wind-powered ranger station. Each year, fewer than 200 campers arrive for a weekend stay at the small and tough-to-reach campground. Here, in photos, are some scenes from San Miguel. __Above:__ Harris Point ------------ Slicing through the sea on the island's north coast, Harris Point is a rocky promontory that offers epic views (when not foggy...) of Cuyler Harbor and Simonton Cove, normally filled with elephant seals. The 3-mile walk from the campground takes you through fields of endemic dudleya and Native American middens. Herbert Lester said Harris Point was his favorite place on the island; it's here that he killed himself, and where he and his wife, Elizabeth, are buried. *Photo: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
02cuyler-harbor-landing
Cuyler Harbor ------------- [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2538.jpg) [Island Packers](http://www.islandpackers.com), the park's concessionaire, ferries visitors between San Miguel and the mainland, a journey that can take almost 5 hours. In the able hands of Captain Lee (right), the boat stops at [Santa Cruz](http://www.nps.gov/chis/planyourvisit/santa-cruz-island.htm) and [Santa Rosa](http://www.nps.gov/chis/planyourvisit/santa-rosa-island.htm) islands on the way out, and -- if you're lucky -- will pause for dolphin and whale-watching in the Santa Barbara Channel. Heaving seas with 8-foot swells -- and an early morning gale warning -- made the trip to San Miguel a bit of a challenge. Especially the last several miles, during which we were warned not to sit in the front of the boat ("you might become airborne"). It's not uncommon for trips to be canceled because of weather, and campers are urged to bring extra food and water in case the boat can't pick them up on time. Finally seeing the island, and the sparkling green waters of its harbor, was a welcome sight. Because there's no pier, landing takes place by skiff. *Photos: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
03island-fox
Island Foxes ------------ [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2005.jpg) Trails on San Miguel Island are covered in piles of dung -- the poopy mark of a conservation success story. In the 1990s, scientists noticed that the island's fox population was crashing. Once numbering more than 400, there were just 15 of the critters (*Urocyon littoralis*) remaining in 2000. Disturbingly, similar trends were seen on neighboring islands; [island foxes](http://www.nps.gov/chis/naturescience/island-fox.htm) are an unusually small species that only lives on the Channel Islands. If they were lost, the species would be extinct. So, scientists scrambled to round up the remaining foxes and keep them safe. At the time, they didn't know what was killing the tiny canids. All they could do was put them in pens on the island, try to re-establish the population, and hope for the best. For nearly a decade, the foxes lived in captivity. Today, their cages (above) can still be seen on San Miguel's southeast slopes. In 2007, [the last sets of foxes](http://www.independent.com/news/2007/oct/09/island-foxes-freed/) were released onto San Miguel; since then, the population has rebounded to more than 500 individuals -- you don't even have to leave the campsite to see the inquisitive, furry creatures. Biologists are still monitoring the population, but the foxes' recovery has been deemed a success. By now, of course, scientists have figured out what happened to the island foxes. The trouble kicked off 50 years ago, when the pesticide DDT started showing up in the Channel Islands ecosystem. DDT destroyed resident bald eagles' eggs, and without babies, the fish-eating eagles disappeared. In their place? Golden eagles -- larger birds who regularly dine on small mammals. The goldens became accustomed to preying upon non-native piglets, lambs and fawns, and soon began to pick off fox pups as well. Ultimately, predation devastated the fox population. Now, all the golden eagles in the Islands have been rounded up and relocated, some to points hundreds of miles away. The feral pigs are gone, too, and bald eagles have been reintroduced. The foxes again have the run of the island, pooping on trails and reminding scientists and visitors how perilously close they came to extinction. *Photos: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
04giant-coreopsis
Giant Coreopsis --------------- Looking a bit like the offspring of a shrunken saguaro and a Dr. Seuss tree, giant coreopsis -- *Coreopsis gigantea* are rather ironically named. The trees, which grow to be just a few feet tall, are endemic to the Channel Islands. In the spring, giant coreopsis send up bright yellow flowers, creating fields of bright blossoms on San Miguel's eastern side. In early summer, they look more like short, hairy shrubs. Here, we're looking down the trail toward Nidever Canyon, a steep ravine that is the only access to the island from Cuyler Harbor. *Photo: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
05caliche-forest
Caliche Forest -------------- [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2042.jpg) Ghostly and fragile, these are the remnants of an ancient forest. Caliche, a type of calcium-rich substance, forms in regions where calcium is abundant. Over time, caliche works its way through the ground, wrapping itself around materials in the soil and creating casts of things like tree stumps and roots. That's what happened here thousands of years ago. Calcium-rich snail and seashells, in the form of caliche, have preserved the shapes of what used to be a forest of cypress and pine, growing near the island's middle. The casts stayed buried for millennia. But when San Miguel's grasses were razed by sheep, the island winds began excavating the spectral forest. Now, new stumps are still emerging, frail and delicate images of an ancient landscape. A long time ago, the Channel Islands were underwater sea mounts, formed by submarine volcanoes. Repeated eruptions thrust the mounts upward, eventually producing a spatter of tiny islands. During the last ice age, which ended 10,000 years ago, a [400-foot drop in sea level](http://www.nps.gov/chis/naturescience/geologicformations.htm) joined the northern Channel Islands together by now-submerged land bridges, creating a giant island called [Santa Rosae](http://www.nps.gov/chis/naturescience/geologicformations.htm). It was here, on this prehistoric land mass, that coniferous trees flourished and pygmy mammoths roamed. As sea levels rose again, the islands again became separated, their inhabitants changed, and the land masses we know today emerged. *Photos: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
06point-bennett
Point Bennett ------------- On the island's western end is the spot where one of the largest breeding colonies of California sea lions arrives each year. When I visited, there were about 50,000 sea lions at the Point -- along with northern fur seals, and northern elephant seals. It's a 7-mile hike to Point Bennett from the campground, along a trail that crests San Miguel Hill and skirts the summit of Green Mountain, where a B-24 bomber [crashed in 1943](http://www.aircraftwrecks.com/pages/smi.htm), while descending in heavy fog. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2108.jpg) *Photos: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
07endemic-island-dudleya
Endemic Island Flowers ---------------------- [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2436.jpg) In late spring, *Dudleya greenei* sends up tall, brightly colored pink shoots crowned by small yellow flowers. The succulent, a Channel Islands endemic, is a beautiful plant, with fleshy leaves arranged in large, fanning rosettes. Several species of *Dudleya* grow only on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands. San Miguel hosts several plants endemic to the Islands, including a subspecies of California poppy (right). *Photos: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
08cardwell-point
[](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2236.jpg) Cardwell Point -------------- Three miles from the campsite, on the island's most eastern end, Cardwell Point is the site of a burgeoning sea lion colony. Here, non-breeding individuals -- mostly juveniles and non-reproductive adults -- haul out to rest and feed. And occasionally, they surf the jewel-green waves, floating and diving through the incoming surf. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2392.jpg) *Photos: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
09elephant-seals
Elephant Seals -------------- [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2348.jpg) San Miguel Island is home to the largest [northern elephant seal](http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/pinnipeds/northernelephantseal.htm) rookery in the world, with more than 30,000 seals coming to breed and pup in winter. In the summer, the seals are here to molt -- a process that litters the beaches with sheets of coarse elephant seal fur. Smaller males, such as the ones shown in these photos, begin battling one another for territory and for practice. They also work on their individual songs. Never heard an elephant seal sing? They emit [deep rumbling noises](http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/education/marine-mammal-information/pinnipeds/northern-elephant-seal/) so loud the sand near them quivers and shakes. As males mature, their songs become more complex, taking on an array of rhythms, and often ending with a snorty grunt. Below, a seal applies cooling sunscreen. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/ESeal.gif) *Photos: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
10taking-a-nap
Napping Sea Lions ----------------- [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2403.jpg) At Cardwell Point, sleepy sea lions sometimes use elephant seals as water beds. That's a different pair, to the right. *Photos: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
11painted-cave-guardian
Painted Cave ------------ [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2588.jpg) Carved into Santa Cruz Island's northwest side is the [Painted Cave](http://www.sailchannelislands.com/cicruisingguide/Painted_Cave.php), a colorful, huge, watery cavern. Extending more than 1,000 feet inward, the cave is one of the largest submarine caves in the world -- and just one of hundreds scooped out of the island's cliffs. Its entrance, a series of arches that get smaller and smaller, is guarded on the eastern side by this face chiseled into the rock. *Photos: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
12dolphin-mega-pod-2
Dolphin Mega-Pod ---------------- [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2013/08/IMG_2642.jpg) The trip back to the mainland was as smooth as the trip out was rough. Along the way, we encountered a mega-pod of dolphins -- a pod with thousands of individuals. Speeding through and jumping out of the water, the pod surrounded our boat for what seemed like miles. After a bit, we came upon a patch of ocean swarming with sea birds -- opportunistic hunters that were waiting for the fish herded to the surface by an even bigger marine mammal: Humpback whales. Lunge-feeding, tail-slapping humpbacks (I was too busy watching to attempt taking a picture) stole what was already an impressive show of life, making the trip back to Ventura harbor the perfect ending to an incredible trip. *Photo: Nadia Drake* *Read about [San Miguel's sea lions](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/).*
