VENTURA VISITORS & CONVENTION BUREAU. THE REAL CALIFORNIA.

 

Santa Rosa Island

The second-largest island, with 53,051 acres - 15 miles long and 10 miles wide - beckons you with rolling hills, deep canyons, a coastal lagoon, and beaches adorned with sand dunes and driftwood. The Chumash called it Wilma or "driftwood" because channel currents brought ashore logs from which they built tomols, plank canoes. For thousands of years unusual animals and plants made the island their home. Flightless geese, giant mice, and pygmy mammoths are extinct, while the island fox, spotted skunk, and munchkin dudleya (one of six plant species found only on this island) still live here.

Island Features: Chumash and ranching history; iron-wood; Torrey pine; snowy plover; Lobo Canyon; beaches.