Read the access rules before anything else. This island was a bombing range and there may be unexploded ordnance on it.
San Miguel is the westernmost of the Channel Islands, part of Channel Islands National Park, and it is owned by the US Navy. The National Park Service opens it only when its own personnel are on the island. A permit including a liability waiver is required to visit. Visitors must stay on the designated trail system, no off-trail hiking is permitted, and beyond the ranger station you must be accompanied by a ranger. Unaccompanied, you may explore Cuyler Harbor beach, Nidever Canyon, the Cabrillo Monument and the Lester Ranch site. If you travel out with Island Packers or Channel Islands Expeditions they supply the permit forms when you book.
With that settled: several trails cross the island and the hiking is spectacular, with large parts closed off to protect wildlife, fragile plants and geological features.
The Cabrillo Monument explains why the island matters historically. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed north from Navidad on 27 June 1542 with three ships, the flagship galleon San Salvador, the smaller La Victoria and a twenty-six oared lateen-rigged vessel named San Miguel. He reached San Diego Bay on 28 September and named it San Miguel, then worked up the coast naming as he went: Santa Catalina became San Salvador after his flagship, San Clemente became Victoria after the third ship, San Pedro Bay became the Bay of Smokes.
His fleet then spent a week among the islands, anchored for most of it in Cuyler Harbor on the northeastern coast of San Miguel Island, the same bay you can walk today. On 18 October they sighted Point Conception. The expedition recorded the names of numerous Chumash villages along the coast and on the islands, which is much of what is known about who lived here first.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
