Santa Catalina Island, CA

Step off the boat at the Isthmus pier and the part of Santa Catalina Island that lies beyond Avalon comes into focus fast. This is unincorporated Los Angeles County at its emptiest, a long ridge of brushy canyons and quiet coves where the dirt roads outnumber the houses and the nearest mainland city is a ferry ride away. Most of the land belongs to the Catalina Island Conservancy, which keeps it wild. The one settlement of any size is Two Harbors, a small resort village on a skinny neck of land where two bays almost touch. Homes out here are few, and most exist because someone works nearby. Simple cottages for resort workers and a few older houses sit around the village, and the historic Banning House Lodge looks down from its hillside. Nothing resembles a subdivision, and nothing new is going up. Food and supplies come from a short list. Up on the central ridge, the Airport in the Sky sits on a mountaintop runway, with a restaurant and a small Nature Center that make it the usual lunch stop for hikers crossing the interior. The outdoors is the daily routine. Hikers and mountain bikers pick up permits and head out on long Conservancy routes, kayakers paddle the coves, and divers work the kelp just off the village. The Wildlands Express shuttle runs visitors from Avalon up to the airport, which saves a long climb. Anyone who does land a place trades convenience for quiet. The Catalina Express runs to San Pedro, errands mostly mean Avalon or the mainland, and on a clear night the lights of the coast glow faintly across a channel that feels much wider than it looks.