Technically my birthday isn’t until next week.  My wife’s birthday was last week.  But I’m on call next week, and my wife was sick last week.  So…  I took this past Friday off and we drove out to Point Lobos State Natural Preserve.  It’s about a 2.5 hour drive to the coast but Pt Lobos is well worth it.

First we stopped off for lunch at Flaherty’s Seafood Grill in Carmel for some lunch.  It was very tempting to stroll the streets and look at the shops but I tried my best to keep us on task; a hike at Pt Lobos.

Traffic was already getting pretty bad at 1pm in Carmel.  The road construction did not help.  But once we got south of Carmel traffic dropped to practically nothing.  We pulled into Pt Lobos around 1:30pm and after paying our $10 fee drove to the south shore.  The north shore of Pt Lobos is defined by cliffs and stunning views of town.  The south shore is much lower and is dotted with tidepools and hidden pebble beaches.  We spent some time hiking the south shore trail and exporing the tidepools.  Then as it got later in the afternoon parking became more abundant so we parked at the west side of the park and hiked through the cypress groves enjoying the colorful wildflowers and poison oak. 🙂

Point Lobos is a stunning place and if you ever get the chance, take a visit midweek during the Spring.  I’ll leave you with some of the pictures we took there.