Point Lobos State Reserve, California is located at 2211 Garden Road in Monterey County, 3 miles South of Carmel on the Pacific Coast Highway (HWY 1).
There is a fee for entry into the park.
The undersea environment here is an attraction to divers and although diving is permitted only at two locations here. Proof of a valid license is required in order to receive a park permit upon arrival for diving. Diving reservations are required for weekends and holidays and are generally a wise idea due to the immense popularity of the park's undersea diversity.
A wide range of invertebrates as well as fish inhabit the undersea kelp forest here. Sea lions, Seals and otters are attracted to these abundant waters and are often seen on dives. From December through May, Gray Whales migrate past this area as well. In the late 1800s and an early 20th Century the area was a hub of the whaling industry.
An old Whalers cabin in the park serves as a whaling museum.
Vast varieties of birds are found in this reserve as well.
Green meadows, headlands and coves are among the land habitats here which can be hiked by visitors.
The name for the park comes from the offshore rocks found here referred to as Point of the Sea Wolves in Spanish. These rocks bounce the echo of the sea lions' calls in to shore.
Rare plant systems and unique rock formations are here as well as sites of archeological interest.
Rock climbing is prohibited and the strength of the surf and the abundance of rock formations make swimming one of the activities that should not be carried out along this reserve's shoreline.
The Monterey Cypress tree is found naturally to grow only here, in this park and on the other side of the same bay.
Point Lobos State Reserve, California has different guided walks and the schedule changes on a monthly basis.
The park is the home to 23 species of land mammals, the largest of which are deer, bobcats and mountain lions.
The rocks here are varied as well, having been formed in different periods. The youngest are 6,000 years old while others date back 100 million years.
Over the centuries diverse people lived at Point Lobos State Reserve, California. The southern edge of the reserve is thought to have been inhabited initially between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago making it the first indigenous village in the area of Monterey County. By the 1770s a Spanish Mission was set up within the area that makes up the reserve. In the middle of the 1800s Point Lobos became the site of one of the first Chinese fishing settlements in California. Japanese farmed abalone here and it was a Portuguese community that would center the whaling trade mentioned above.
The area was designated a marine and ecological reserve in 1973 after decades of growing interest in the preservation of the area.
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