Ôªø Monterey Peninsula and the 17-Mile Drive

Monterey Peninsula and the 17-Mile Drive

Monarch butterflies gliding over church spires. Parks and gardens covered with flittering clouds of golden wings. Spectacular views of this dramatic coastline, with craggy granite headlands, crashing waves and wind-bent cypress trees. Otters floating offshore on kelp beds. Harbor seals stretching on rocky outcrops. The peacefulness of a white-washed Mission complex. These are just some of the highlights of this magnificent stretch of coastline, easily accessible on a leisurely day drive.

"Butterfly Town, USA"

Begin in Pacific Grove, originally founded as a Methodist retreat, now famous for Monarch butterflies, Victorian houses, and Monterey pines. Each October children parade downtown to welcome back thousands of Monarch butterflies, which return to winter in local gardens and parks. These four-inch orange-and-black butterflies hang on branches in dense clusters, deceptively like dead leaves. When sunshine warms them, the fragile butterflies unfold and flit around gracefully. The peak population is in January and February, although numbers vary from year to year.

The best place to see butterflies is the Monarch Grove Sanctuary, a small area local taxpayers bought, where a path leads to eucalyptus trees, which butterflies love. Sometimes volunteer docents set up viewing scopes. You can also usually see Monarchs in nearby Washington Park, where the town citizens have been replanting trees and shrubs for the butterflies. Bring binoculars, and be careful where you walk, as the butterflies are protected by law.

If it's a weekend, stop at Point Pinos Lighthouse, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the west coast: its beacon has flashed nightly since February 1855. (Open Saturdays and Sundays, 1-4pm, tel 831-648-3116)

Ocean View Blvd winds around Point Pinos, named by the Spanish explorer Sebastian Viscaino in 1602. It was just off here that John Denver's plane crashed into the ocean in 1997. You can often see flowers draped over the rocks along the shore.

Asilomar State Beach has tidepools to explore at low tide, but the sea can be rough, and swimming is hazardous. Ocean View Blvd, is now called Sunset Drive, and it's easy to see why: as the sun sinks below the horizon, the sea often shimmers silver, gold and pink.

Enter Pebble Beach through the Pacific Grove Gate, where you'll get a pamphlet; it cost $8.25 per car for visitors at the time we entered (residents free). Pebble Beach is a gated enclave of residences (many are huge, imposing mansions), resorts, pine and cypress forests, a village, and many golf courses.

If you're lucky the sky will be clear, but it can be foggy any time of the year. In fact, the weather can literally change as the wind blows. But, it's still beautiful and the fog makes it more mysterious.

The coastline abounds with animal life---striped squirrels, otters, harbor seals, sea lions, pelicans, tidepool animals. Pods of grey whales spout offshore, peaking from late December through January.

Bright green golf courses nestle between the grey and brown rocks on the sea side of the road. The lush greens are tasty treats for deer and flocks of wintering Canadian geese.

On the road along the rocky coastline are a number of well-marked pull-off areas with informational boards:
--Moss Beach, named for the moss that washes up each day. Walk, or drive, to the end of Moss Beach to reach Point Joe, the Restless Sea to your right, so named because the currents and waves cause some of the wildest surf in California.
--Point Joe, supposedly named for a Chinese fisherman around the turn of the 20th century, has been the scene of many shipwrecks.
--Bird and Seal Rock (actually a number of rocks) where the barking sound of hundreds of California sea lions is unmistakable. Cormorants swoop and dive. There are spotting telescopes, and the nature trail on the other side of the road, through dunes and forest, is easy and fun.
--Cypress Point Lookout. There's a spectacular view to the south, with many birds on the rocks offshore. Pacific harbor seals give birth on the beach below the lookout area.
--The Lone Cypress---a boardwalk allows you to get good views and photographs of this famous gnarled 200-year-old Monterey cypress, clinging to the rocky point overlooking the waves, a symbol of survival.

In Pebble Beach village you can shop and eat, then on to Carmel-by-the Sea, an artistic haven, with storybook architecture, shops and galleries, and a gorgeous white sand beach, framed by cypress groves. Mission San Carlos Borromeo Del Rio Carmelo is usually known just as Carmel Mission ( www.carmelmission.org ).

It's a large complex, renovated and restored in the 1930s, with lovely gardens, a huge sandstone church with twin Moorish towers, beautiful cloisters, and an interesting little cemetery. A luminous pinkish-red bougainvillea bush is stunning against the whitewash and adobe of the cloister walls and the Moorish bell tower. A small museum aims to reconstruct the life here at the time of the Mission. You also learn about the life of Father Junipero Serra, founding father of the California Missions. He was buried here in 1784.
Free parking. Entrance fee $4, ages 5-17 $1. Hours: Mon-Fri 9:30am-4:30pm, Sat-Sun 10:30am-4:30pm. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Monterey/Carmel

www.montereyinfo.org www.monterey.com www.monterey-carmel.com

Lodging in Pacific Grove

Lighthouse Lodge and Suites, 1150 and 1249 Lighthouse Ave, 800-858-1249, fax 831-655-4922, www.lhls.com
Check this site out for specials linked to butterfly viewing: www.pacificgrove.org/monarchdayslodging.htm

Please note: 17-Mile Drive is closed to tour traffic during the AT&T Golf Tournament in early February. Call for dates at Pebble Beach Information Office (831/647-7500)

Images and Text copyright Vivienne Mackie, 2005.
No reproduction, electronic, written or otherwise, without prior written consent.

Back to USA Travel Articles...