17 Mile Drive, Pebble Beach (actually seven miles)

17 Mile Drive (actually seven miles), which you enter at Pacific Grove Gate (near Asilomar State Beach), is on a large swath of forested coastline owned by a corporation. It costs $12 to enter, which allows you to drive a winding road from north to south through misty old-growth Monterey Cypress forest and stop at many stunning overlooks. It is well worth spending a morning or afternoon enjoying the experience! Don't be turned off by the distance: it is only seven miles long, not seventeen!

Take the drive from north to south so that you go in the direction of most cars and can easily pull over at each oceanfront overlook.  At the toll booth, they give you a map, but you can also just follow the signs and the red line in the middle of the roadway, to find your way. Each stop is named with a clear sign, and you can choose which stops interest you.
One of the best stops, at the beginning of the drive (third on the map), is Spanish Bay Beach. Spanish explorers camped here in 1769 when they couldn't find Monterey Bay. Here, on sunny days, the water is the most incredible aquamarine color! The white, white sand creates this effect, like you are in the Bahamas! A picnic table sits on the beach of huge smooth pebbles, and the overall look is just amazing! Nearby, Point Joe Vista Point is important to view because here a strange phenomenon makes huge waves go in all directions. This is where many shipwrecks happened!
Next are more stops where you can watch birds and crashing sea over rocks: China Rock, Granite Beach, Bird Rock, and Seal Rock Beach. Watch seals climb on and off Bird Rock. There is a restroom at this stop. Seal Rock Beach is a white-sand cove that is gorgeous. Across from the beach, a short wooden boardwalk leads over scrub and dunes toward a strange little house with a fairytale roof called Gingerbread House. 17 Mile Drive is located within a gated residential golf course community, so you pass mansion gates as you drive along. Fanshell Beach is another white sand beach with aquamarine water. Sometimes you can see starfish in the tidepools at low tide. At Fanshell Beach Overlook, you might see harbor seals in May.
Crocker Cypress Grove is a spot of very old Monterey Cypress trees. You aren't allowed to hike in the forest though. You can stand at the pulloff and look up at the trees which are quite bare of leaves. We saw two deer run by. Cypress Point Overlook (Sunset Point Overlook on google maps) is a parking lot with a cement wall and chain link fence around it. There are many plaques describing the harbor seals that give birth to their pups on the beach below in May. 
The most famous stop is Lone Cypress, a tree that is being propped up because it is famous but old, on a tall pointy rock. The sea splashes around the rock, and the perfect silhouette of the rock and lone tree against the misty sky are mythical. It is the logo for Pebble Beach Golf Course Resort. Ghost Trees At Pescadero Point is a stop where you see the blue sea through low Cypress trees, always a nice sight. Next you drive through the Pebble Beach Golf Course, a fairly plain area. You can stop at Pebble Beach Visitor Center, with displays about the area and good views of the golf course and sea. There is a gift shop here. 
You exit at the Carmel Gate which is minutes from downtown Carmel-By-The-Sea, where several streets of high end and touristy shops sit under trees in thick fog.
17 Mile Drive is just for driving and stopping at lookouts- there isn't anywhere to walk. Some people bike the road, but they are on the road with cars with drivers looking back at scenic lookouts, so it is not safe in the slightest. It's too bad that there isn't a separate bike path.

Directions

17 Mile Drive is best to enter at Pacific Grove Gate, and drive from north to south, so that you can easily stop at the coastal overlooks on the west side of the road. It costs $12 to enter. The drive is actually only seven miles!

Start Navigation

Click on map for interactive view