Basic HTML Version
chambers, rises over 160 feet from the surface of the water, and is more than 100
feet wide. The Island Packers boat can drive inside its entrance; the cave gets its
moniker from the multi-colored lichen and algae clinging to its dank ceiling.
As the low beam of my headlamp lit up the grotto’s innards, Painted Cave
came to life. The cacophony my lamp set off sounded as if I’d awakened a
slumbering sea monster. The deep bellows resonated from the cave’s dark depths.
Then my headlamp reflected off a multitude of curious onlookers. A small cobbled
beach was at the rear of the cave and it was standing-room-only for a clan of
raucous sea lions. The younger sea lions, sleek and playful, came to investigate, but
it was the pair of big bulls with their knobby heads that were cause for concern.
Territorial by nature, it’s best to give them a wide birth, and so I did, paddling for
daylight following a beam of light only 1,200 feet away.
Rattled No More
Pockmarked with too many alcoves and crevices to count, the east end of
Anacapa is also highly concentrated with a bevy of sea caves. One cave in particular
was a full house of sea-serpent-like cormorants, whistling pigeon guillemots and
secretive Xantus’s murrelets roosting and nesting inside the bowels of a crowded
summer
|
fal l
23
is a towering, gaping grotto found on the rugged west end
of Santa Cruz Island. There’s nothing but sheer 300-foot-
tall cliffs on either side of this massive cavity that burrows
inside 1,215 feet into the mountainous isle. It possesses four