Very rarely do I get the opportunity to get away, but when I do, I like to get far away… and an island, you’d think would be far enough so I booked a ticket to Catalina and a two-night stay at the posh Glenmore Plaza Hotel.
I came over for some quality time with my mom on her birthday and a little R&R far and away and free from the stressors of city-living. The island itself is about 75 miles square and the only city is only 2: a wealth of escape potential. We booked a three-hour jeep tour with the Catalina Island Conservancy, to cruise through the island’s largely unpopulated interior, met our tour guide Ron, and hopped into an open-top jeep with a Canadian couple along for the bird-watching. Ron runs the jeep up a high road, climbing 1000 ft along a cliff-side: post-card views of Avalon emerging below and it’s only the first ten minutes. Ron points out the Conservancy road beginning ahead- a little worse for wear, but the Jeep easily tackles what I imagine would feel like the Indiana Jones ride in my Honda Fit…
The farther we rise up out of Avalon, the more serene our surrounds become: a sweeping, birds-eye view at the top of this wild oceanic island. Ron takes care to point out actual birds, the couple behind us snapping shots of every raven, woodpecker, or morning dove. We snuck up on a fox or two and were even lucky enough to come around a corner to find a herd of bison grazing on a rolling green ridge just above a playground meant for local use. Reaching a peak of surreality, we arrive atop the ‘Airport in the Sky,’ an airport on top of an island. Ron points out a spot along the road where the strip ends, part of the fence bent completely out of shape by one attempted landing! Apparently landing on an island is tricky business. The airport itself looks like Humphrey Bogart might’ve landed here for a nightcap circa 1940, and I imagine some film stars still do.
Back on the road again, we rumble down and around the windward side of the island (read: WINDY). Our Jeep meets the Trans-Catalina hiking trail and Ron has to ease us down the precipitous ridge at about 5MPH; it’s almost a sheer drop down cactus covered ridges on either side, but looking up… we see, not only the length of the island, but a breathtaking view of what you might recognize as French Polynesia in the original Mutiny on the Bounty: ‘Little Harbor’ sparkles in the distance with its two pristine beachheads, meadowlarks call sweetly in the field around us, and all the while the rugged, untouched windward coast of Catalina is stretching out further and further… This, I think, this is far and away.”
By Author, Tristan Neito
Feb 25th 2016
The Glenmore Plaza 1800.4.CATALINA
Go Visit Catalina 