Seventeen Mile Drive

The Seventeen Mile Drive

The Lone Cypress The 17 Mile Drive is a scenic road through Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach, California, United States, much of which hugs the Pacific coastline and passes famous golf courses and mansions. It also serves as the main road through the gated community of Pebble Beach. Like the community, the 17-Mile Drive is owned and operated by the Pebble Beach Corporation. Entry into Pebble Beach costs US$9.00 per automobile. Residents of Pebble Beach and their guests enter for free. Entry is also free for bicyclists and pedestrians. Motorcycles are prohibited from entering 17-Mile Drive.

At the north end, the road originates in Pacific Grove at the intersection of Del Monte Blvd and Highway 68 (Holman Highway). The famous portion of 17-Mile Drive then begins a few miles south of this point. The road runs adjacent to beaches and up into the coastal hills, providing scenic viewpoints. Travel along 17-Mile Drive takes as long as the traveler likes. There are numerous turnouts along the road to stop, take pictures, or get out and stroll along the ocean or among the trees. Each visitor receives a small map that points out some of the more scenic spots.

Chief among these is the Lone Cypress Tree, the official symbol of Pebble Beach and a frequent fixture of television broadcasts from this area. The only services open to the public in Pebble Beach (gas stations, restrooms, restaurants) are at Lodge at Pebble Beach and the Inn at Spanish Bay; there are plenty of comfortable and scenic spots to picnic.

Just outside the lower Pacific Grove gate to the gated community of Pebble Beach is Pacific Grove's Sunset Drive (which becomes Ocean View Boulevard), which follows Pacific Grove's scenic coastline and is called by some the "poor man's 17-Mile Drive."

The Drive

We made all the suggested stops getting out to walk around and see the sights...

Always very rocky and wet with waves that dance form the sea onto the shore.

There are approximately 20 stops along the well marked route, each with a landmark of interest and paved parking for your vehicle. From the trademark Lone Cypress tree to the Restless Sea, Seal Rock to Spanish Bay and Spyglass Hill, you are guaranteed to get a thrill. The well trodden road was once a trail in which covered wagons carried guests from a hotel to picnic grounds along Pebble Beach over 100 years ago. Though a century has passed, some things are timeless in this enchanted forest. Today, tourists continue to enjoy the crashing waves that hit rugged rocks below vistas where pine trees frame each photo perfectly. Picnics are still "in" as are strolls along the sand near Seal Rock lookout. And golf continues to be the number one sport here for over 80 years.

Bird Rock is always loaded with the local birds and an occasional seal.

The Lone Cypress

It was a long walk up and down the stairs but worth the effort!

Each visitor receives a small map that points out some of the more scenic spots.

Chief among these is the Lone Cypress Tree, the official symbol of Pebble Beach and a frequent fixture of television broadcasts from this area.

The parking at the top o the stairs is quite limited and busses often come by and disgorge 80+ people at a time so we hit a low time in terms of people walking through the area. The day was sometime bleak and that made for a little eyestrain to see the wildlife in the area.

Pebble Beach

Pebble Beach is a small private coastal unincorporated community in Monterey County, California which is best known as a golf destination and also one of the highest profile spots in the US.

Technically, Pebble Beach is not a city at all, but rather a corporation owned by the Pebble Beach Company and managed as a small town. Residents therefore pay homeowners' fees in lieu of city property taxes. The community's post office is named Pebble Beach, but the U.S. Census Bureau regards the land as part of the larger census-designated place of Del Monte Forest. The area is also partly administrated also by the Del Monte Forest Foundation, a non-profit organization designated by Monterey County and the California Coastal Commission, and comprising of a volunteer board of 12 persons interested in preserving the open space within the Del Monte Forest. Except for two representatives of the Pebble Beach Company, all must be property owners and residents of the Forest.

Pebble Beach has seven public and private 18-hole golf courses. Pebble Beach Golf Links, The Links at Spanish Bay, and Spyglass Hill are owned by the Pebble Beach Company and are all public courses. The other four courses in the town are Poppy Hills which is public, the private Cypress Point Club, and the private Monterey Peninsula Country Club's two courses, the Dunes Course and the Shore Course. The Pebble Beach Company also owns a nine hole par-3 course in Pebble Beach called the Peter Hay course, and Del Monte Golf Course a few miles away in Monterey, which is the oldest continuously operating course in the Western United States. Several of these courses are widely celebrated, especially Pebble Beach Golf Links, which is the most famous course in the Western United States, and the only course which has ever beaten Pine Valley Golf Club to top spot in Golf Digest's biennial list of America's 100 greatest courses.