CYPRESS GROVE TRAIL

Loop from Sea Lion Point parking area; 8/10 mile, 30 minutes. Through coastal scrub and woods to cliffs with dramatic and spectacular ocean views. Trail Guide available at the Information Station.

The favorite of many visitors, the Cypress Grove Trail winds through one of the two naturally growing stands of Monterey cypress trees remaining on Earth. (The other grove is across Carmel Bay at Cypress Point.) These cypresses, which formerly extended over a much wider range, withdrew to these fog-shrouded headlands as the climate changed with the close of the Pleistocene epoch 15,000 years ago. The outermost trees, surviving in the teeth of salt spray and wind, their roots seeking nourishment in cracks and crevices, mirror the forces of nature and time.

Take time here to enjoy nature's array of California sea lions on the outer rocks, sea otters rafting among swirling canopies of giant kelp, wildflowers clinging to chinks in the granite walls, and the delicate and harmless lace lichen bearding dead understory limbs.

These cypresses, which formerly extended over a much wider range, withdrew to these fog-shrouded headlands as the climate changed with the close of the Pleistocene epoch 15,000 years ago. The outermost trees, surviving in the teeth of salt spray and wind, their roots seeking nourishment in cracks and crevices, mirror the forces of nature and time. Point Lobos State Reserve was originally acquired to protect these gnarled trees. This particular grove is a memorial to Mr. and Mrs. A.M. Allan.

The orange, velvety "stuff" especially noticeable on trees and rocks of the shadowed north-facing slopes is green algae. Its orange color comes from carotene, a pigment which also occurs in carrots. The plant does not harm the trees.

Between the loop trail and the parking area, and amid the dense shrubbery off trail, a keen-eyed visitor may discover a dozen or more large mounds of twigs. These are dusky-footed woodrat houses, which may achieve great age and size as successive owners add to them.