Point Lobos, California

California has some of the most beautiful coastline in the world, especially when one gets out of the urban areas. Point Lobos is just south of Monterey or about a quarter of the way from San Francisco to LA. This is our favourite area of the Golden State. China Bay pictured above gives it a tropical appearance, however the waters are cold in early May.

Seals and their pups hang out on the beach, it's not easy for humans to get here and bother them. It was cute watching them do the worm to try and get up onto the sheltered beach. If you're going to visit, May would be the best time as there were seals all over the place and yes the babies are cute. We also saw sea otters and sea lions with their babies and plenty of flowers.

Point Lobos also has flora like nowhere else. Ancient Cedars and Monterey Cypress trees line the cliffs and are often trapped in mist, the constant moisture gives makes California home to the world's tallest trees but one must go further inland to find those. They may have been here a some point but any large tree near the Ocean would have been cut down a few hundred years ago. Some of these trees can live for a thousand plus years.

Point Lobos has incredible vistas and offers many unique vantage points to gaze along the California Coastline. One can see the mansions of the Carmel Highlands, beyond lies the Big Sur with the famous bridges carrying Highway 1 down towards Los Angeles.

Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese fished these waters as they are home to a rich wealth of marine life. Whaling was common here back in the day and locals fished out almost every species down to the Sardines which are finally just recovering bringing the seals and sea lion populations back up with them.

The moss growing in the trees provides shelter from the sun on a warm day. Because this is the Northern Pacific Ocean, it's never too warm. One has to go into the Valleys of California to find heat. We assumed it would be warm in California, but by the Coast it can be quite cool.

The beaches look so inviting and the sand is just perfect. Wearing a wetsuit on a cold day in May would be a must. During the height of the Summer I imagine this would be paradise.

The park is very popular especially during weekends in the Summer. We went on a weekday to avoid the most of the crowds but still parked outside the gates to skip on the fees. The path system is quite good and this one leads into the park from the highway.

Here is a mountain of Guano. They mine the rocks for phosphate to make fertilizer. Birds sit on these rocks all day and their droppings accumulate into layers that are dozens of meters thick in places.

Here's a colony of Sea Lions out on some of the rocks far off the point. They had telescopes to see them which are difficult to make out on the Camera phone. This would have been a great place to bring a real camera with a zoom lens.

The seals hang out at the closer rocks and prefer the shelter of the many bays and coves in the area. If you're ever in the San Francisco area, I strongly recommend visiting Monterey then stopping by Carmel and Point Lobos.

Thanks for visiting.

All photos were taken with an S22 or iPhone 15 pro and are unfiltered.