Oxnard highlight
Closest mainland access to Channel Islands National Park
Island Packers ferries depart from Oxnard's Channel Islands Harbor and Ventura Harbor to reach Channel Islands National Park's five islands, which harbor 145 species found nowhere else on Earth.
Channel Islands National Park covers 249,561 acres spanning five islands off the Ventura County coast: San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara. The park was formally established in 1980, protecting a landscape shaped by millions of years of geological history and the unique adaptation of wildlife to island isolation. Within the park boundaries live more than 2,000 species of plants and animals; 145 of those species exist nowhere else in the world, found only on these islands and the surrounding waters.
Island Packers, the National Park Service's official concessionaire, operates out of both Ventura Harbor and Oxnard's Channel Islands Harbor. The company has managed ferry service to the islands since 1968, operating a fleet of four vessels that carry day-trippers, campers, and researchers to the park. Service includes landing trips for hiking and camping, non-landing wildlife cruises to view marine mammals and seabirds, and specialty excursions. From late December through early April, gray whale migrations pass close to the islands; in summer, blue whales appear. The park receives over 300,000 visitors annually, a testament to the draw of untouched coastline, sea caves accessible only by water, and the restoration success of animal populations including sea lions, which number over 100,000 at one island seal rookery.
For families in Oxnard and Ventura County, the Channel Islands represent a destination that builds traditions: a first camping trip, a hike to a sea cave, a day watching whales migrate. These are the experiences families want to protect through a plan for financial security. A term life insurance policy sized to cover a family's years of dependence—through childhoods, college years, first homes—is how families promise to safeguard the people and plans that matter most.