Point Lobos State ReserveMost years after the De Anza Outdoor Club goes kayaking in Monterey on Spring break, we eat a little and head for Point Lobos, a few miles south of Carmel, for a short walk and hike.
 
Because Point Lobos is a reserve the number of cars that can enter at one time is limited. The trails have unobtrusive wire fences to keep people from walking and climbing all over and as a result there is lush growth of grasses, shrubs, wildflowers and poison oak. Staying on the trails and often walking only single file should keep you out of the poison oak, but beware, sometime it grows and hangs out of the tree branches overhead. Below: sticky monkeyflower and a photo of poison oak and iris.
 
The Department of the Interior notes that "During the past 5-year period, 3.2% of all injuries/illnesses reported by Interior Department employees have been cases of poison ivy, oak, or sumac. 1,070 of these 1,160 cases required medical treatment other than first aid or have resulted in a lost time illness."
Their poison ivy (and poison oak) fact sheet has pictures and descriptions, symptoms, prevention and treatment at:
http://medical.smis.doi.gov/POISON%20IVY%20FACT%20SHEET.pdf
At Point Lobos there are sandy, pebbly and rocky beaches. Very visible wildlife includes Southern Sea Otters, Harbor Seals, California Sea Lions, white-crowned sparrows and cormorants. We've almost always seen deer (like this one eating just steps off the North Shore trail), rabbits, and occasionally squirrels, groundsquirrels and pelicans.
Below: seals on Bluefish Cove beach by Erika Weaver
Some days the fog rolls in and sifts throught the Monterey Pines. On foggy days you won't be able to see far out to sea and watch whales migrating.
 
At the parking lot next to the trailhead for the Allan Memorial Grove there is a trailer with displays, an otter pelt, and postcards. A docent (volunteer) is there to answer questions. Restrooms are slightly up a trail to the left of and behind the trailer.
We are always struck by the spring colors. Some of the water is turquoise; the purple iris and red paintbrush dot the cliffs. There's an abundance of rust colored algae on rocks and trees and grey stringy lace lichen on trees.
J Smeaton Chase described paintbrush in 1911:
"It was here of a red so fierce and refulgent as to really require a new word to express it. The red poppy is a pale invalid beside this roistering gypsy. It pours out color, throbs with it, seems to shed it off like something palpable; and I can imagine that an essence or sublimation, too fine for our senses to perceive, goes up from each of these myriad blossoms, which could be kindled into flame, - the essential, elemental Red."
 
A short walk up the road from the Whalers Cove parking lot is the Whalers Cabin and Whaling Station museum, which is open as docent staffing permits. Displays outside include whale bones. Often they have a telescope for visitors to see, for example, seal babies on the rocks across the cove.
 
Picnicing is allowed at the areas with picnic tables which are marked on the map you'll get when you pay to enter the park. Fires, stoves and barbeques are not allowed. This is not a park to be enjoyed merely by driving through. You can do that in less than ten minutes. We always hike the Allan Memorial Grove Trail, and the South Shore Trail including Cannery Point.
 
When we come during a storm in the winter we especially love to go out on the Sea Lion Point Trail to watch the huge waves break. If you do go close to the shore there truly are rogue waves that can knock you off your feet and sweep you out to sea, or at least get you soaked.
Most of the North Shore Trail has intimate coves like the ones shown above. The South Shore Trail has longer vistas like this photo taken from the Sand Hill Trail:
There is a black and white aerial photo of Point Lobos at:
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=13&Z=10&X=371&Y=2525&W=1&qs=%7cPoint+Lobos%7cCalifornia%7c
Trail map:
http://pt-lobos.parks.state.ca.us/Trails.htm
Details about the kayaking we do before these hikes are at:
Monterey ocean kayak day trip
Please read:
rogue or sneaker waves
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