We've embarked on a much needed road trip. Who would have thought our first stop would be at a defunct mental hospital?

Now the home of California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo State Hospital was touted as the largest psychiatric hospital this side of the Mississippi when it opened in the mid-1930s. ‘From a mere 410 patients in 1936, the population grew in excess of 7,000 patients in 1957.
For many years, the hospital remained independent and autonomous from the outside world, with its own gardens, ice house, dairy, butcher, fire and police departments, hospital, beauty parlors, petting zoo, clothing store, swimming pool, and bowling alley. It even housed staff on its grounds. With its accreditation ratings consistently high in the 1980s and 1990s, the hospital seemed destined to last forever. As you can see by the ruins, things changed.

Looking for a sightseeing side trip, we were intrigued by the "Scary Dairy", located on the parcel that was a dairy farm that produced crops and housed livestock that fed the hospital community. The farm was disbanded in the 1960s and has been left in a state of disrepair, falling prey over the decades to vandals.

I suspect if you were here at night, it would be a bit ooky.

The history of Camarillo State Mental Hospital demands a more thorough explore (this is rumored to be The Eagles Hotel California). But that will be another time.



For today, just slightly veering off the set path proved exciting enough.