Little Harbor and Shark Harbor

Start your hike to Two Harbors here at Little and Shark Harbors. The camping amenities are very good and include barbecues and fire pits. To make camping or fire pit reservations call (310) 510-8368.

The hike to Two Harbors from here is about six miles, making it a popular destination whether you’re heading from or toward Two Harbors. Bison are known to wander through camp, so enjoy but do keep your distance.

Obtain your 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.

For kayakers, Little Harbor’s calmer waters make for an easy put in and take out point, even when the wind’s blowing a bit. Keep your eyes peeled for shorebirds and sea life. During low tides, there are small tide pools to explore. Just remember to tread lightly.

Shark Harbor is nearly always churning. In the right weather, you might see surfers catching the waves. Hiking up Whale’s Tail rock gives you some nice views and offers up a great place to relax and watch the ocean. Why is it called Whale’s Tail? One look and you’ll know. The Whale’s Tail is smack dab between Little and Shark Harbors and makes for a great viewpoint. Native American Tongva villages were significant here and were favored for the resources, protection, access to fresh water and the calm harbor they provided. The Tongva thrived here for many thousands of years and called these harbors home.

This area, with its stunning natural scenery is also surprisingly diverse botanically. It has one of our nicest stands of the giant coreposis. Corepsis gigantea, a member of the sunflower family, is like a Dr. Seuss tree in growth form but has bright yellow flowers in the spring. Other smaller plants nearby include Green liveforever, called Dudleya virens. It’s a succulent with showy flower stalks in summer. And there’s a nice stand of shooting stars, called Dodecatheon clevelandi, that you can see in the spring.

This area also harbors the island’s only intact salina, an area where a freshwater stream occasionally mixes with saltwater to form a brackish pool with unique plants that are adapted to these special conditions such as the thick green stemmed pickleweed (Salicornia sp.).

There's dining, lodging, and historically interesting buildings here at Two Harbors. The Banning House, perched on the hill, overlooks both Isthmus and Catalina Harbor. It was built in 1910 by the Banning brothers to serve as their summer home. The brothers traveled by stagecoach from Avalon. The rugged journey took two days to go one way. Since 1910, the Lodge has served as the U.S. Coast Guard officer's quarters during World War II, as a private girls camp in the late 1950s, a hunting lodge, and as employee housing. Today, it is an 11-room bed and breakfast with a feel from the past and is called the Banning House Lodge.