Santa Catalina Island stories & travel reviews

Trans-Catalina Trail from Avalon to Two Harbors Located on Catalina Island, this is a moderately challenging backpacking expedition. With a length of about 19 miles and an elevation gain of 4,700 feet, the trip took ...

At first, David was dejected, and I wasn’t much help. “If we were going to go for fun, I probably would have opted to stay on the fun side of the island,” I said.

We usually ran open-party for the summer, but one day we took a charter of factory workers from Santa Monica on an overnight trip. Hard-working guys enjoying a cold one and catching rockfish at the ...

I remember sitting in the La Paloma Theatre watching the 2012 major release surf film Chasing Mavericks. The biopic of Jay Moriarity’s rise to world-class surfing depicted his mentor, Frosty Hesson, training the young Moriarity ...

One of seven islands in the Channel Island archipelago, Catalina lies 22 miles due west off Los Angeles. It doesn’t surprise me that the Victorian botanist-poet Blanche Trask took up residence there; it hadn’t been ...

I’m always surprised at the number of Southern California residents who have never been to Catalina Island. My family spent quite a few summers on the island, and it’s the perfect opportunity to get away ...

Todd Robinson of the La Jolla Swim Club set the men’s Catalina-to-California-mainland swim record on August 25, with a time of 8 hours, 5 minutes, and 44 seconds. Beginning from Catalina Twin Harbors at around ...

On certain crystal-clear days (most common between late October and March), the looping hike over East Mountain on Santa Catalina Island affords an ever-changing panorama of the blue ocean, San Clemente Island to the south, ...

Parsons Landing on Santa Catalina Island is not only the site of a small beach and a spacious camping area; it is also the home of one of the best examples of native Southern California ...

Island Express Helicopters 1175 Queens Highway South, Long Beach www.islandexpress.com 562-436-2012 If your stomach is prone to queasiness, the only good way to reach Catalina Island is on a quick 15-minute helicopter ride. Located just ...

The hike to the highest point on the west end of Santa Catalina Island -- 1804-foot Silver Peak --introduces you to its wild windward side. Spectacular views are the norm most of the way. Assuming ...

Created by uplift of the sea floor roughly two million years ago, the Palos Verdes peninsula lay surrounded by the ocean for hundreds of thousands of years. Today a vast sheet of alluvium fills the ...

The languid pace of life on Santa Catalina Island reflects its aloofness from the increasingly frantic business of living on the Southern California mainland. A weekend visit there is truly relaxing, whether you choose to ...