Explore the Rugged Beauty of Channel Islands National Park’s Anacapa Island

These islands are the place to go to be completely immersed in nature.

Brown pelicans fly over Anacapa Island near Inspiration Point on East Anacapa Island. Anacapa Island is one of five islands that make up Channel Islands National Park off the coast of Ventura, California and is composed of three islets: East, Middle and West. Paul Bersebach/Orange County Register/SCNG/TNS

By Paul Bersebach and Don Sproul The Orange County Register

VENTURA, Calif.—Some 12 miles off the California coast near Ventura, the rugged volcanic ridges that form the spine of Anacapa Island, or more precisely its three closely connected islets, thrust upward from the Pacific.