Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 41 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 16 of the next 16 nights read 15:42 UTC
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 76 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Prisoners Harbor Campground is located near the shoreline, and with a maximum capacity of 24 people, it offers a quieter experience than the larger campground at Scorpion. The campground is a short hike from the pier and is sheltered from harsh ocean winds. As you explore this area, please respect the property boundary and help protect and preserve these delicate resources for future generations. Santa Cruz Island, the largest of California’s Channel Islands, is one of the five islands that make up Channel Islands National Park. Keep reading
The island is rich in cultural history, magnificent landscapes, and unique flora and fauna. Native American peoples inhabited the island for over 10,000 years, and Europeans explored and ranched on the island for more than 150 years. More than 600 plant species, 140 land birds, 11 land mammals, and a variety of amphibians and reptiles call the island home. The island fox and island scrub‑jay are especially exciting finds, as they are unique to Santa Cruz Island and found nowhere else in the world.
Recreation
From Prisoners Harbor, the campground is only 0.3 miles from the pier. The road does follow a road which passes through a seasonal creek. While the campground has an accessible site and an accessible toilet, transportation to the campground requires use of a ladder and on an uneven road. This road is still used daily by vehicles, so please use caution while hiking along it. During winter and spring, visitors need to be prepared for a wet creek crossing at Canada del Puerto in Prisoner's Harbor. From Scorpion Anchorage, the campground is approximately 14 miles via the Navy Road. Beach access is at Prisoners Harbor. Recreational activities on Santa Cruz Island include hiking, swimming, snorkeling, diving, kayaking and wildlife/wildflower viewing. There are no services on the island, so all gear has to be brought to the island. For more information about recreational activities in the park, visit https://www.nps.gov/chis/planyourvisit/index.htm .
Facilities
The Prisoners Harbor Campground has six primitive campsites (four persons per site) and users must camp within these designated sites. Each site is 8 feet by 20 feet; smaller tents are appropriate for this location. A picnic table, food storage, and vault toilet are provided. Visitors are encouraged to pack as light as possible as they will need to carry all of their gear, food and water to the campsite. Water is not available. Access to the island is by Island Packers Cruises or by private boat.
Natural Features
The Prisoners Harbor Campground is nestled in a shaded oak grove. The largest of California's Channel Islands, Santa Cruz Island is one of the five islands that make up the Channel Islands National Park. The island is rich in cultural history, magnificent landscapes, and unique flora and fauna. Native American Indians inhabited the island for over 10,000 years and Europeans explored and ranched on the island for over 150 years. Over 600 plant species, 140 land birds, 11 land mammals and a handful of amphibians and reptiles call the island their home. The island fox and island scrub-jay are exciting finds, as they're unique to the island, found nowhere else in the world.
What the agency tells you
Prisoner's Harbor on Santa Island may only be reached by boat. Visitors are required to arrange transportation to the island before reserving a campsite. Contact Island Packers the park's authorized concessioner or bring your own private boat.
The Pelican Bay Trail is on land owned by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). It is only open to Island Packers (IPCO) passengers who have signed the required waiver and are hiking during the hours an IPCO naturalist guide is present between IPCO arrival and departure at Prisoners Harbor. All other entry onto TNC property is not permitted.
Camping reservations are required prior to arriving on the island. There are NO walk-ups at this facility.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
One party or group may reserve a maximum of 2 individual sites per visit. There are 6 individual campsites. Max 4 people per site. Campsites are 8 feet by 20 feet which includes a picnic table.
Upon arrival, receive an orientation at the pier. However, park staff is not always available on the island. Please have confirmation letter, receipt, or campsite number with you.
1/4 mile from the pier to the campground. Visitors must carry all their own gear. During winter and spring, campers will need to be prepared for a wet creek crossing at Canada del Puerto in Prisoner's Harbor. Visitors may have to wade through fast moving water up to 2 feet deep.
Primitive camping. Tent camping only, no electricity/water/sewer site hook-ups at this campground. Bring low profile tents and extra food for weather delays. Picnic table and food storage box provided. No stores or services.
Quiet time is enforced at 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Check-in and check-out times are at 11:00 a.m.
Proper food and trash storage is required. Food/trash storage lockers are provided at each site. Recommend hard-sided container (i.e., action packer) to further protect food/garbage from animals.
Visitors are required to pack out what they pack in, including garbage.
Smoking is only allowed on the beach. No campfires or charcoal fires. Only enclosed gas camp stoves are allowed.
Avoid contact with deer mice. Hantavirus has been found in island deer mice. For more information visit: https://www.nps.gov/chis/planyourvisit/hantavirus.htm
To help prevent the introduction of nonnative species the following items may not be brought to the park: pets; live or potted plants; soil; cut flowers; firewood or any untreated, unfinished wood (including hiking sticks); corrugated boxes; tools or equipment with attached soil; motorized vehicles; bicycles; and single-use plastic grocery bags. Prior to departure, visitors are required to use pest-proof packing materials, inspect and clean their gear and shoes of all soil, seeds, and insects. Learn more about biosecurity and watch the required video at Protect Your Park Through Biosecurity
No fishing in marine reserves. California fishing license and ocean enhancement sticker required to fish outside marine reserves.
Watersports: Due to the strong, persistent wind, swimming, snorkeling, diving, and kayaking are limited and recommended for the experienced visitor only. Ocean conditions can rapidly change, requiring expert abilities. Ocean kayaking is an inherently dangerous activity. Always check weather and do not kayak beyond your experience level.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 7 · 6 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Campfires
- Not allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…A picnic table, food storage, and vault toilet are provided. Visitors are encouraged to pack as…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…gear, food and water to the campsite. Water is not available. Access to the island is by Island Packers Cruises…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Beach, Coast
Full this Saturdayread 15:42 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
3 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 16:14 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 6 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 3 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:42 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 3
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:14 UTC
- Santa Cruz Island ScorpionChannel Islands National Park · 7.2 mi · 2 of 62 site-nights open
- Anacapa IslandChannel Islands National Park · 18 mi · 8 of 14 site-nights open
- Santa Rosa IslandChannel Islands National Park · 21 mi · 6 of 28 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:42 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
7 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 6 mapped sitesAll 7 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 7 of the 7 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 6 of the 7 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| Prisoner's Harbor Area | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 120 ft | 7.7 mi | 659 ft | $15 | |
| Prisoner's Harbor Area | 002 | type not stated | 7.7 mi | 665 ft | |||
| Prisoner's Harbor Area | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 41 ft | 7.7 mi | 666 ft | $15 | |
| Prisoner's Harbor Area | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 41 ft | 7.7 mi | 670 ft | $15 | |
| Prisoner's Harbor Area | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 56 ft | 7.7 mi | 704 ft | $15 | |
| Prisoner's Harbor Area | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 56 ft | 7.7 mi | 669 ft | $15 | |
| Prisoner's Harbor Area | 007 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 116 ft | 7.7 mi | 570 ft | $15 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Santa Cruz Island Del Norte BackcountryChannel Islands National Park · 1.3 mi
Santa Cruz Island ScorpionChannel Islands National Park · 7.2 mi
Scorpion Canyon CampgroundChannel Islands National Park · 7.3 mi
Anacapa IslandChannel Islands National Park · 18 mi
Water Canyon CampgroundChannel Islands National Park · 21 miPrisoner's Harbor on Santa Island may only be reached by boat. Visitors are required to arrange transportation to the island before reserving a campsite. Contact Island Packers the park's authorized concessioner or bring your own private boat.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Santa Barbara, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 56°F, day 76°F.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor is in California’s 24th congressional district. Its representative, Salud Carbajal (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneySalud O. CarbajalU.S. Representative · California’s 24th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor, Channel Islands National Park, California
Dear Salud O. Carbajal, I’m a constituent in California’s 24th district. I tried to camp at Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor, Channel Islands National Park, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 6 of the 7 campsites the agency files at Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor (Channel Islands National Park, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor, Channel Islands National Park, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor, Channel Islands National Park, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 6 of the 7 campsites the agency files at Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor (Channel Islands National Park, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor, Channel Islands National Park, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor, Channel Islands National Park, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 6 of the 7 campsites the agency files at Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 6 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor. I’m asking you to put it to the National Park Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Santa Cruz Island Prisoners Harbor (Channel Islands National Park, California) via campanac.com