Catalina For The Weekend: Guide To Catalina Island

Text courtesy of Los Angeles Magazine's Weekender Guide to Catalina. For more of the best of Los Angeles, check out lamag.com.

By Matthew Segal

The island may be part of L.A. County, and it looks a lot like the Santa Monica Mountains. But to master Santa Catalina, you need to surrender to it as only an outsider can: by embracing your sight-seeing, thrill-seeking, drink-swilling, photo-snapping inner tourist. It's not hard. When gum pooh-bah William Wrigley Jr. bought the island in 1919, he vowed to protect his newfound paradise. A nature conservancy received much of the land after his death in 1932, and to this day development is mostly limited to Avalon, the 2.2-square-mile town that clings barnacle-like to the bay. With summer crowds tapering off, Catalina is just the place for a quick getaway; several recent improvements in the area will leave you wondering why you've put off visiting all these years.

Caption text courtesy of Los Angeles Magazine.

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Wrigley Memorial & Botanical Gardens and Catalina Island Conservancy

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Since cars are limited on the island, some visitors rent a bike or a gas-powered golf cart or hire a cab, but the $2 town trolley is a cheaper way to roll up the hill to the Wrigley Memorial & Botanical Gardens, its grand mausoleum staring down on a spread of cactus and endemic plants. After Wrigley died, his estate granted 88 percent of his land to the Catalina Island Conservancy (310-510-2595), which recently completed the 37.2-mile Trans-Catalina Trail. Even for a brief pedal or hike into the wide-open interior, you’re required to obtain a (free) permit from the conservancy; however, most people opt for a tour instead. Photo via Facebook: Catalina Island Conservancy.

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Since cars are limited on the island, some visitors rent a bike or a gas-powered golf cart or hire a cab, but the $2 town trolley is a cheaper way to roll up the hill to the Wrigley Memorial & Botanical Gardens, its grand mausoleum staring down on a spread of cactus and endemic plants. After Wrigley died, his estate granted 88 percent of his land to the Catalina Island Conservancy (310-510-2595), which recently completed the 37.2-mile Trans-Catalina Trail. Even for a brief pedal or hike into the wide-open interior, you’re required to obtain a (free) permit from the conservancy; however, most people opt for a tour instead.

Photo via Facebook: Catalina Island Conservancy.

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Comments

[Pema]

10:53 AM on 09/09/2010

i love love love catalina, my avatar is catalinas bay. its a great weekend get away but after that, there isnt much to do. been about everywhere but the hotel and zip line were still under constructi­on when we last went in march 2010...goi­ng back for the zipline