Fun things to do on the Monterey Peninsula
A photo essay on popular activites for visitors
Story and photos by David Laws
Just over 100 miles south of San Francisco, the Monterey Peninsula has been a magnet for those seeking activity and relaxation since the Hotel Del Monte opened in 1880. While social norms of behavior and dress may have changed, the fundamental appeal of the striking coastal landscape coupled with welcoming hospitality amid a diversity of cultures and historic traditions continue to be reflected in the following list of popular activities enjoyed by visitors today.
Visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium:
The colorful jellyfish exhibit is one of the popular attractions at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Jellyfish are invertebrates that can smell, detect light, and respond to stimuli that allow them to find food and avoid danger. As their bodies are about 95 percent water, the collection of species from around the world, such as moon, purple-striped, and fried-egg jellies, reflects and refracts ambient light to choreograph an elegant and ethereal underwater ballet.
Take a stroll along Cannery Row:
Hospitality entrepreneurs have transformed this former sprawling foul-smelling fish-canning district that collapsed in the 1950s due to the decimation of the sardine population by overfishing into a bustling neighborhood of shops, restaurants, and visitor attractions. The city renamed the street Cannery Row after John Steinbeck’s novel that immortalized many local characters. This mural by artist John Cerney depicts a Southern Pacific Railroad engine with workers unloading crates at the peak of the Row’s activity in the 1930s.
Take a drive along 17-Mile Drive:
This iconic stretch of road through the Del Monte Forest passes high-walled mansions in the popular Spanish Colonial architectural style of the 1920s in dramatic settings overlooking the ocean. Famous landmarks such as the Lone Cypress and Pebble Beach Golf Course attract larger crowds, but “Ghost Trees at Pescadero Point” is one of the more intriguing points of interest. Here, in one of the only two places in the world where they are endemic, sun-bleached skeletons of Monterey Cypress cast supernatural shadows in the spectal evening light.
Visit Monterey State Historic Park:
Monterey State Historic Park is a collection of Spanish adobe and early American buildings that showcase the city’s history and cultural heritage. Casa Soberanes, for example, a two-story adobe house built in the 1840s has been restored to reflect the garden and lifestyle of a well-to-do family in the mid-19th century. On occasional open days, you can see original furnishings including period-appropriate furniture, artwork, and household items.
Take a whale-watching cruise:
Due to a rich marine ecosystem created by the Monterey Canyon, Monterey Bay is home to a diverse range of marine life, including whales, dolphins, sea otters, and sea lions. Up to 16,000 feet below the surface, the underwater canyon is one of the deepest adjacent to the North American continent. You can see and photograph the ocean’s top predators, orcas, together with spouting and breaching humpback, blue, and gray whales on whale-watching cruises operating from Moss Landing and Monterey harbors.
Visit Pacific Grove:
A residential and resort community located on the western tip of the Monterey Peninsula, Pacific Grove is known for its restored Victorian homes, miles of scenic coastline, and Point Pinos Lighthouse, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast. The light was first lit in 1855 when it was fueled by locally harvested whale oil. The lighthouse is also noted for the appointment of two female lightkeepers in the late 1800s. It has been automated since 1975.
Learn about the natural history of the Monterey Peninsula:
The Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History features exhibits on the region’s flora and fauna, the marine life of Monterey Bay, local geology, and the history of the Rumsen indigenous people. Founded in 1883, it is one of the oldest natural history museums in the western United States. The popular “Birds of Monterey County” exhibit showcases mounted specimens of nearly 300 species of resident and migratory birds. The museum also offers educational programs including guided tours, school programs, and workshops.
Hike the trails at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve:
Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is a protected area south of Carmel-by-the-Sea that has been called the “crown jewel” of the state park system. The reserve covers over 1,300 acres of rugged coastline, granite cliffs, sandy beaches, and coves, providing habitat for a diverse range of land and marine animals and plants. Miles of hiking trails offer views of the ocean busy with harbor seals, sea lions, sea otters, and pelagic birds. Several trails allow access to visitors with limited mobility. The diverse cultural history of how Native American people inhabited the area for thousands of years until being displaced by successive waves of Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese immigrants is recounted in the Whaler’s Cabin Museum.
Go Golfing:
The Monterey Peninsula is home to world-class golf courses, including Cypress Point, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Pebble Beach, and Spyglass Hill. There are also many public courses, including the Pacific Grove Golf Links, known locally as the “poor man’s” Pebble Beach for expansive ocean views from many holes. Established in 1932 along the route of a former railroad track, Pacific Grove Golf Links is a par-70 course that features a traditional links-style design with flat fairways, deep bunkers, and small, undulating greens.
Relax on one of the beautiful beaches:
In addition to Asilomar State Beach and miles of sandy beaches lining Monterey Bay, the peninsula offers numerous secluded coves, such as Fanshell Beach in Pebble Beach and Lovers Point in Pacific Grove. The brilliant white sand of Carmel City Beach at the foot of a cypress-covered bluff extends to the lagoon of the Carmel River in the south. The natural beauty of these beaches has attracted generations of artists and photopapers, including Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.
Sample the local cuisine:
The Monterey Peninsula offers a thriving food scene, with numerous seafood restaurants, fresh farm-to-table dining, ethnic food choices, and artisanal chocolate, beer, and wine producers. Local seafood specialties are infused with artichokes and distinctive Sicilian flavors of the early immigrant fishing community. For a very local feast, enjoy Italian Fish dinners with the padres for only $20 at San Carlos Cathedral Hall on Friday evenings during Lent.
Go wine tasting:
Many wineries take advantage of the varied microclimates around the peninsula. They are noted for their cool-climate Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs resulting from the typically foggy summer mornings along the ocean. For ease of access by vistors, store-front tasting rooms abound in Carmel and Monterey. Alternatively, the River Road Wine Trail, which runs fifty miles from Salinas to the southern end of the valley, includes more than a dozen wineries in settings reminiscent of Napa Valley fifty-years ago.
For lots of other fun things to do on the Monterey Peninsula:
Visit the website of the Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau or any of the peninsula cities.
Pick up a copy of Secrets of Monterey: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure online or at your local bookstore.
Also see these other stories about Monterey published in BATW’s Stories of Travel, Culture, and the World:
What I learned about using ChatGPT as a writing tool
My original idea for creating this photo essay was to ask the artificial intelligence (AI) tool ChatGPT to generate extended captions for my images. For the reasons noted below, I quickly abandoned any idea of using the resulting text. I used only the list of activities recommended by my unfailingly polite but seriously flawed AI assistant.
ChatGPT’s spelling and punctuation skills are better than mine, but its voice is bland, repetitive, monotonous, and sounds scarily like Dave in 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, I can understand its appeal to writers on a deadline. The original test run took just 20 minutes, mostly involving formulating the best question, versus about three hours of research and writing the old-fashioned way.
Interestingly, ChatGPT drew a blank on the Ghost Trees at Pescadero Point. It advised, “I couldn’t find any official information or specific references to such trees in the area.” Google found 928 results in 0.62 seconds.
More seriously, it generates misinformation by conflating unrelated pieces of data. Here are two blatant examples: one assumes that as a restaurant had a stunning sea view, another on the same street would have that same outlook. And an exhibit located in the Monterey Bay Aquarium was described as being in the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.
Based on this experiment, ChatGPT can be helpful for research. It ignores the numerous sales pitches and garbage results from a typical browser search but is far from ready for prime-time travel writing assignments. I don’t worry about being replaced by a computer — this week.
[Rev 3.4.23]
