Black Jack Trail - Catalina Island

At this time, the Renton Mine Trail portion of the Trans Catalina Trail has to be accessed via Wrigley Road, which takes you up and over the ridge near Mount Ada in Avalon. You’ll find the trail head shortly after you pass the Inn at Mt. Ada. The route to the trail head is paved and a bit steep, but the views of Avalon and the ocean are incredible.

Obtain your free Hiking Permit online or at the Conservancy House on Clarissa before leaving Avalon. Also, be sure to review Cautions and Policies before heading out on your adventure.

You can also enter through the Wrigley Memorial & Botanic Garden, just a little farther up the road from Hermit Gulch Campground. This route is recommended, as the garden and memorial are a destination all to themselves and should not be missed.

Obtain your free Hiking Permit online or garden kiosk. Also, be sure to review Cautions and Policies before heading out on your adventure.

The second trail head out of Avalon begins at the Hermit Gulch Campgrounds in Avalon Canyon, just past the Nature Center. Whichever route you choose, the Hermit Gulch Trail will take you up to Divide Road.


Obtain your free Hiking Permit online or at the Nature Center. Also, be sure to review Cautions and Policies before heading out on your adventure.

Follow the Trans Catalina Trail through Haypress, past Middle Ranch Road and past Cape Canyon to the Black Jack Campground. There’s much to see along the way, so take some time to look for hawks, bison, eagles, squirrels and more. On to Black Jack!

This is a good place to keep your eyes peeled for the last remaining black buck antelope to still roam the region. The antelope, like the mule deer, are non-native animals, transported to the Island for hunting purposes in decades past. The antelope pose no long-term threat to the ecology of Catalina as the remaining animals are the last vestiges of a diminishing herd. Bison like to roam through the campsites around Black Jack. And with a keen eye, you might see lizards, Catalina California ground squirrels, ravens and birds of prey looking for a meal.

Near the airport and next to Catalina’s highest peak (Mt. Orizaba), Black Jack offers excellent camping for groups large or small, and access to a number of hikes, including the Trans Catalina Trail. Blackjack is a mere 2 miles away from the airport via graded roads and can serve as a great camping area if you want to head to the airport for breakfast the next morning.

At Black Jack you’ll find remnants of an old mining cable car system along the hillsides and ravines. Though there are some earlier mentions of finding gold-bearing rock on Catalina, the Island’s mining boom essentially began in 1863 with a combination of minerals found. Most of the mining operations centered on the Isthmus, where Daniel E. Way and Martin M. Kimberly found lead and trace amounts of gold. In 1864, miners found Galena, copper, gold, silver and lead in the area surrounding Little Harbor. Most of the minerals were considered to be of poor quality. That mining boom ended around 1868.

After the Wrigley family purchased Catalina Island, William Wrigley Jr. and David Renton (his general manager) began looking for mining opportunities. In 1923, they discovered that the area around Black Jack Mountain would be a productive area in which to prospect. In 1924, more than $100,000 worth of lead, silver and zinc were mined, transported down the hill to the “Silver Isle 100 Ton Flotation Mill” at White’s Landing and shipped to Belgium. Around the same time, the Renton Silver and Zinc Mine was operated near Pebbly Beach. Shortly after, the prices of metals dropped and yields dwindled to the point that it was no longer profitable to continue to operate a mining business at Black Jack. The mine at Black Jack ceased its operation in 1927.

The area surrounding Black Jack campground has some of the nicest Island chaparral vegetation on Catalina. The oak that is common throughout the Catalina is the Island scrub oak (Quercus pacifica), found only in the Channel Islands. It forms lovely shaded groves that, unlike most scrub oaks, have branches that are tall enough you only need to stoop to walk underneath. Other components of the chaparral plant community are Catalina’s endemic Manzanita (Arctostaphylous catalinae), a tall shrub with bright red bark and in the winter blooms with light pink urn shaped flowers, and Catalina crossosoma (Crossosoma californica), which has showy white flowers in the spring, with fruits like elephant tusks and in the fall have stunning red leaves. This species has limited distribution, it’s only found on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Catalina and Clemente Islands and Guadalupe Island in Baja.