"Hike into the Clouds on Catalina Island The 1.7 mile hike up the grueling Hermit Gulch Trail overlooks the Avalon harbor cradled between the evergreen shrubbed hills. You can make out the wakes of boats coming and going like airplane contrails in the ocean but you wouldn't expect the opposite side of the island to actually feel like you were in flight. Once at the summit, we discovered a view like that from a plane and descended into an endless layer of rolling pearly clouds."