Visitor access is by a wet landing in Barrington Bay on the northeastern side of the island.

The name Santa Fé is Spanish for "Holy Faith" in reference to Roman Catholic Christianity.

[2] Geologically, the island is one of the oldest of the archipelago; volcanic rocks of about 4 million years old have been found.

[3] The vegetation of the island is characterized by brush, palo santo trees and stands of a large subvariety of the Galápagos prickly pear cactus, Opuntia galapageia subvar.

Between 2015 and 2021 the Santa Fe Tortoise Project successfully introduced some 700 juvenile and 31 subadult Española tortoises to Santa Fe to complete the ecological restoration program (which had begun in the 1970s with the eradication of feral goats) for the island.