Oxnard Audioguides

Oxnard sits in the Oxnard Plain in Ventura County, a strip of flat, fertile land between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific that produces roughly 60 percent of California's strawberries. The fields are visible from most of the city, and the California Strawberry Festival held here each May is one of the larger food festivals on the West Coast. The city itself grew rapidly after World War II when the Naval Construction Battalion Center was established nearby, and its demographics reflect that history: Oxnard has one of the largest Mexican-American populations of any California city, and its taquerias and Mexican bakeries are considered among the best in the region.

Channel Islands Harbor, on the southern edge of the city, is a 2,000-slip marina with a distinct character from the resort areas of Malibu to the south or Santa Barbara to the north, more working waterfront than leisure postcard.

From Ventura Harbor nearby, Island Packers runs ferry service to Channel Islands National Park, five islands in the Santa Barbara Channel that were never developed and offer some of the best hiking, snorkeling, and wildlife viewing on the California coast. Sea caves, elephant seal colonies, and endemic plant species that survived ice ages here make the islands worth the crossing. The Carnegie Art Museum in the city's historic downtown is a small but well-curated collection in a 1906 Carnegie-funded building.