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Mainland and Islands
The Channel region begins in the North at Point Conception, the
northwestern-most promontory before the California coast makes a turn to follow an east-west direction. Point Conception was an important geographic feature for the Native Americans in pre history - it was considered the gate through which their souls passed to enter the other world after death. For the European explores and colonizers, it was the point around which one turned one’s ship - with great caution ( hence the name Devil’s Jaws ) - off the Pacific Ocean to enter into the hopefully calmer seas of the Channel.
From Point Conception, the Santa Ynez Mountains reach down the coast,
parallel to the shoreline, providing a dramatic sand stone rich backdrop to the Santa Barbara and Ventura coastal communities. Running parallel to the Santa Ynez Mountains, out across the Santa Barbara channel lie the northern Channel Islands- Santa Cruz the largest, then Santa Rosa to its west, and still further west is San Miguel.
Following the coast as it starts to turn south, with the Santa Ynez
Mountains as a backdrop, with steep coastal terraces ( subject to recent landslides in rainy weather ) dropping right down to the sea, Anacapa Island appears on the horizon with its three separate islets. Ventura is actually closer to Santa Cruz Island than Santa Barbara, and during the ice age, was less than five miles from Anacapa Island.
At the southern end of the Oxnard plains the Santa Monica Mountains
become the backdrop of the coastal communities that begin again at Malibu and extend down into Santa Monica. These mountains are actually the range of mountains that is most directly connected to the northern California Channel Islands. Rounding the Point at Point Magu, now a naval weapons development and testing location, but in prehistory a large village called Muwu, the sandstone of the Santa Ynez range gives way to rocks of volcanic origin and the rugged cliffs hug the cost right down to the shoreline.
From the Santa Monica mountains, the geography opens up to the vast Los
Angeles basin, a huge valley that inland leads to other valleys that were home to Channel residents for thousands of years before the arrival of European and American settlers – San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel valley, and the San Bernardino Valley. Out across the San Pedro Channel, Catalina beckons, and beyond her, San Clemente to the South, and San Nicholas further to the southwest. Tiny Santa Barbara Island perches directly due west from the tip of Catalina.
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