The Perfect 17 Mile Drive: An expert guide to the Monterey Peninsula’s most scenic drive

Pebble Beach’s 17 Mile Drive is my personal favorite afternoon drive, offering vista views of beaches, rocky cliffs, world famous golf courses, Del Monte Forest, luxurious hotels and some of the Peninsula’s most beautiful homes.

Combine the trip with a dinner reservation inside Pebble to bypass the $12.25 gate fee, which is reimbursed with a minimum $35 purchase.

For the best view, drive North to South, from Pacific Grove to Carmel-by-the-Sea, providing you and your passengers with an ocean-side view. Enter Pebble Beach via the Pacific Grove Gate at Sunset Drive.

Follow Forest Lodge Road past the Inn at Spanish Bay until you can turn right toward the coast, the northern entrance to 17 Mile Drive.

When you reach the coast, turn right for Moss Beach at the parking lot. This is a large sandy beach framed by cobblestone rocks, picnic tables and a boardwalk.

This is the largest sandy beach on the drive and a nice place for a picnic. The parking lot is narrow so be prepared to enter and exit slowly and patiently.

Along 17 Mile Drive, there are several small stations to park, rest and appreciate the coastline, each a little different. They are:

The Restless Sea: big waves crashing against the rock, with wide views of Spanish Bay.

Point Joe: More rock formations and more parking.

China Rock:  A large rock formation with even more parking.

Across the road, you’ll see golfers from the Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Dunes course. What an incredible backdrop for them! You’ll also see golfers from MPCC’s Dunes course crossing 17 Mile Drive near Point Joe to complete the 14th hole.

As you continue on 17 Mile Drive, between China Rock and Bird Rock, to your left, Ocean Road leads residents through the golf course and into the MPCC-area residential neighborhoods, while several small parking lots are available to your right so you can explore the coastline. The best option is just south of China Rock, where you’ll find a large lot with a pathway to a coastline walking trail with picnic tables and park benches.

The main attractions along this stretch are:

-More golf views. On a sunny day, the greens glow.

-Majestic beachfront homes behind the golf course.

–Bird Rock: this is the largest parking lot on 17 Mile Drive before the Lodge and the only stop with bathrooms, so make a pit stop now and enjoy the drive.

There are also picnic tables, stairs down to Seal Rock Beach and a front row of the seals yelping and playing.

Bird Rock Road is the next artery into the residential neighborhoods and the Stevenson School’s high school campus. Crossing Bird Rock Road, you’ll immediately hit Seal Rock, a smaller parking circle with access to a sandy beach.

Across the street, the boardwalk create a path to a nature preserve, with a couple perfectly placed park benches to watch the ocean and listen to waves. This is probably my favorite individual spot in Pebble Beach. Also you’ll see a colorful storybook house at the top of the hill that looks right out of a Grimm’s tale.

Once you cross Bird Rock Road heading south, you enter a residential stretch of 17 Mile Drive with a lot of new development along a winding stretch near the Spyglass course.

Park and rest at Fanshell Overlook for more dramatic coastline views and some (not much) sandy beach. There’s not really anywhere else to park, and any spots will be snapped up by workers’ trucks. Just keep driving, because you’re now heading into the home stretch of the drive.

As you reach the western edge of Pebble Beach at Cypress Point, the road bends along the coastline and curls into Del Monte Forest. The wide turns make this the most fun stretch of the drive, like a go-kart or video game course, just much slower.

You’ll see Cypress Point Club’s golf course overlooking the Pacific coast to your left and the club lodge to your right, behind a private drive that says “go away.” This is an extremely exclusive club so, unless you miraculously score an invite, keep driving.

Continue past the club and you’ll soon reach the Crocker Grove, which boasts “the largest and oldest Cypress trees in existence.” If you can, visit very early or very late in the afternoon, when the sunlight glows between the trees. There’s not much to do here, you can’t really walk too far into the woods, but there’s a few open parking spots to pull off of the road and appreciate our region’s most famous trees.

Past the Grove starts a stretch of the my favorite homes along the drive. You’ll see every imaginable style: a Spanish-style home overlooking a cliff, a 5,000 SF farmhouse, a stone mansion, a castle at the top of a long winding driveway.

Sometimes the styles clash but each lot is so large that each house stands alone. The rows of houses are like a gallery full of great paintings that don’t really need to align. The road winds through the forest so you have to steal looks at the houses anyway.

Eventually, you’ll hit the Sunset Point Overlook, a popular spot to watch the sun set. It’s not a great station otherwise. Mostly, a really large parking lot where you can watch the sunset from your car. If you’re short on time and visiting any other time of day, this can be skipped.

Finally, we’re approaching the Lone Cypress, a 250-year old Monterey Cypress so famous that it’s been the Pebble Beach logo since the resort’s founding in 1919.

If you’re a first time visitor, this is an obvious stop: a single cypress tree perches above the coastline over Carmel Bay. There is a fair amount of parking but often not enough for the crowds. The large platform affords a ton of great angles for photographs.

17MD3Next, you’ll reach Pescadero Point, the southernmost point of the Monterey Peninsula. This rocky stretch is famous for big wave surfing at Ghost Trees, a surf break just outside the 18th hole of Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Past Pescadero, the road bends left, towards an equestrian property with a tree tunnel hanging overhead.

I sometimes take a slight detour, though it bypasses Pescadero Point: veer left onto Cypress Drive, to find a stunning tree tunnel, with the leaves and branches extending over the road to create a shaded canopy from the same equestrian property, now on the right side of the road.

On the left side, you’ll find more homes, including a horse farm with a large paddock. This stretch is just a block and after another block on Cypress Drive, arrive at the Lodge, the world famous hotel that built Pebble Beach.

Near the Lodge, you’ll first reach a parking lot that serves the Pebble Beach post office (93953), the Pebble Beach Retail Pro Shop (with bathrooms) and the Pebble Beach Market, plus a terrance with tables and Adirondack chairs and views of Carmel Bay.

The Pebble Beach Market sells sandwiches, snacks and wine but my favorite is the banana ice cream. The Lodge is also home to several restaurants and shops.

Continuing past the Lodge, the road gets narrower and the hedges get taller but the lots are somehow more spectacular, with cliffside views of Stillwater Cove and Carmel Bay.

This stretch of road offers very few opportunities to park, and the drivers are more likely to drive at a normal fast pace. Generally the best coastal views of this last stretch of Pebble are on private property, so no public access. For this reason, once you continue past the Lodge campus, the photo opportunities are more limited.

Nearing the front entrance of the resort, guests turn down a long driveway to check in, and the rest of us get great golf and Carmel Bay views.

Across the street from the resort entrance sit some of the largest and most majestic residences anywhere on the Peninsula.

Driving past the resort, continue following 17 Mile Drive through the last stretches of homes before the Pebble Beach gate at the northwestern corner of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Look on your right for a wide bending turn directing you to the gate.

Once in Carmel, bear right following signs for Ocean Avenue. Make a left at Ocean Avenue and follow it up the hill towards downtown and CA Highway 1.