| Isla Afuera, a few miles off the south end of Isla Guadalupe, is a volcanic plug. It's sides are sheer walls that extend above and below the waterline for hundreds of feet. One of the world's most dramatic dive settings, Afuera sports both exceptionally clear water and often huge surge and wave motion. | | Isla Adentro ("inner island") is near the south end of Isla Guadalupe and has two smaller islets near it: Church Rock and Roca del Skip. The gap between Adentro and Afuera is known as Tuna Alley for obvious reasons. The best dive among this group of rocks starts with a circumnavigation of Roca del Skip, where schools of scythe butterflyfish, yellowtail and medialuna are typically seen, followed by a bluewater (underwater) swim across the gap to Church Rock, where turtles, Cortez Chubb and walls of kelp are found. | | | Guadalupe Island is volcanic, with cinder cones dotting the island. Lava tubes terminating at the shoreline are seen in some places, while Isla Adentro has a vertical lava tube on its west face. | A sheer ridge, the crest of an ancient caldera, forms the highest point on Guadalupe Island at its north end. The crest creates its own weather in such a way that clouds, trapped on its west side, drape over the top of the island and dissapate as they flow down the east side. The moisture from these clouds supports a small fragile grove of Monterey pines (Pinus radiata), one of only two island populations of this tree species in the world. | | Feral goats roam the island and are frequently seen in the highlands at the north and central parts of the island. They strip any greenery they can reach from the Monterey pines, and eat any seedlings that may have germinated. Conservation efforts are now underway to protect the remaining pines from the goats and foster new growth. | Along the beach near Spanish Bay at the north end of Guadalupe Island are found a small shack (occasionally used by fishermen), radio tower / lighthouse, and the remnants of an abandoned prison and church. Indeed, this would have been a lonely, desolate place to have served a prison sentence. |
