The Scenic 17-Mile Drive of the Monterey Peninsula

China Rock

One of America’s great scenic drives is 17-Mile Drive on California’s Monterey Peninsula.  As is the case with many of America’s scenic drives (some of our other favorites include the scenic Apache Trail and the historic Columbia River Highway), 17-Mile Drive has been a tourist attraction for a very long time.  The first travelers along 17-Mile Drive explored the Del Monte Forest by horse-drawn carriage as early as 1881.  Now visitors pay an entrance fee at one of five gates to view the Monterey Peninsula’s dramatic coastline, visit 17-Mile Drive’s 21 marked points of interest, and get a glimpse of what is probably the Monterey Peninsula’s most famous attraction, Pebble Beach Golf Links. 

We drove 17-Mile Drive during a visit to Carmel-by-the-Sea.  It was a grey, drizzly morning, not ideal for walking around town, so we needed something to do and keep dry.  Carrie Theis, the owner of Hofsas House Hotel, suggested we grab a picnic lunch at Carmel’s 5th Ave. Deli and spend the first half of the day driving around 17-Mile Drive.  17-Mile Drive is beautiful in both clear, sunny weather and grey, dreary weather.  Bright sunshine and clear skies make for better pictures, but dismal, wet conditions highlight the powerful ruggedness of this portion of the California coast.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 19: The Lodge at Pebble Beach

Pebble Beach Golf Links

We began our tour of 17-Mile Drive at Carmel Gate, just north of Carmel-by-the-Sea, and followed a clockwise route.  The first stop reached from Carmel Gate is the famed Pebble Beach, which was hosting the Callaway Pebble Beach Invitational during our visit.  The Lodge at Pebble Beach provides views of the 18th fairway and green of Pebble Beach Golf Links.  Sadly Romeo, who loves golf travel, did not get to play Pebble Beach on this visit, but it was still fun for him to see the course in real life for the first time and catch a glimpse of PGA golfers on the course.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 20: Peter Hay Par-3 Golf Course and 100th U.S. Open Monument

100th U.S. Open Monument

Peter Hay Golf Course is a par-3 golf course open to the public.  It is also a point of interest along 17-Mile Drive because of the 100th U.S. Open Monument, a 30,000 pound bronze sculpture by Richard MacDonald titled Momentum, dedicated at the 100th U.S. Open Championship in 2000.  The sculpture portrays the athleticism of the complete golf swing and contains the name of every U.S. Open champion since 1895.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 21: Pebble Beach Equestrian Center

Near Peter Hay Golf Course is the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center, which offers guided horseback riding experiences through the Del Monte Forest and along the Pacific Coast.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 18: Pescadero Point

Pescadero Point

Pescadero Point offers views of Carmel Bay and Stillwater Cove.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 17: The Ghost Tree

The Ghost Tree is a gnarled Monterey cypress with a bleached white trunk and a ghostly appearance.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 16: The Lone Cypress

The Lone Cypress

The Monterey Cypress tree, once near extinction, is only native to the headlands of Cypress Point and nearby Point Lobos.  The Lone Cypress has stood perched for over 250 years on a jagged rock outcropping overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  As the living symbol of the Pebble Beach Company, which owns a large portion of the Del Monte Forest, the Lone Cypress is trademarked and images of the tree cannot be sold or used for commercial purposes.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 15: Crocker Grove

Crocker Grove is a nature preserve of native pines and cypress.  The grove is named after Charles Crocker, creator of the original 17-Mile Drive.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 14: Cypress Point Lookout

Cypress Point Lookout

Cypress Point Lookout is another viewpoint overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the dramatic coastline.  The lookout is closed April 1 through June 1 during the California Sea Lions birthing season.  Looking out over the ocean you will actually be looking at Carmel Canyon, part of the 10,000-foot-deep Monterey Canyon and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. 

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 13: Fanshell Overlook

Fanshell Overlook is another area that is closed during harbor seal pupping season.  Fanshell Overlook is where we chose to enjoy our picnic lunch from 5th Ave. Deli, protected within our car from the mist, with a view of the white sand beach just outside our windows.  This is where we also started noticing the houses across the street from the shore with yards of sand and ice plant.  It was amazing to see how far inland the sand travels, with some high-dollar houses having small sand dunes for landscaping.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 12: Spyglass Hill Golf Course

Spyglass Hill Golf Course is another public golf course on the Monterey Peninsula designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 11: Seal Rock Picnic Area

If you have better weather than we did, Seal Rock Picnic Area is a great place to enjoy a picnic lunch with an ocean view.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 10: Bird Rock

Bird Rock is home to shorebirds, harbor seals, and sea lions.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 9: Bird Rock Hunt Course

Monterey Peninsula Country Club

Bird Rock Hunt Course is now part of the Shore Course of the Monterey Peninsula Country Club, but used to be the site of an equestrian hunt and steeplechase competition.  The area was also used for riding and saber practice by the 11th Calvary stationed in Monterey in the 1920s.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 8: China Rock

Chinese Rock

Along the coastline, from Point Joe to China Rock, Chinese fishermen built lean-tos against the rocks from the late 1800s to early 1900s.  Chinese immigrants were the first to commercially fish the waters of Monterey Bay and helped make Monterey a successful fishing port.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 7: Point Joe

Point Joe is the site of many shipwrecks because early mariners mistakenly thought it was the entrance to Monterey Bay. 

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 6: The Restless Sea

The turbulence caused by the rocky underwater terrain can be witnessed from the Point Joe viewpoint.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 5: Spanish Bay

Spanish Bay was once the campsite for the Spanish explorer Don Gaspar de Portola.  This is another picnic spot as well as a great place to walk along the shore.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 4: The Inn & Links at Spanish Bay

Along Spanish Bay is the Inn at Spanish Bay and golf course.  The Links at Spanish Bay is a Scottish-style course known for having a bagpiper close the course every evening.  I’m pretty sure we saw the course bagpiper having a drink later that evening at Cypress Inn.  After all, how many men on the Monterey Peninsula could possibly wear a kilt?

Point Pinos Lighthouse and Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course

We chose to exit 17-Mile Drive using the Pacific Grove Gate and continue along the coast using Sunset Drive and Ocean View Boulevard.  This route passes through Pacific Grove, by the Point Pinos Lighthouse, along Cannery Row, and through Monterey, looping back to Carmel-by-the-Sea via Highway 1.  However there are three more points of interest along 17-Mile Drive if continuing along the loop.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 3: Poppy Hills Golf Course

Poppy Hills is another golf course on the Monterey Peninsula and is also the home of the Northern California Golf Association.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 2: Huckleberry Hill

Huckleberry Hill is one of the highest elevations in the Del Monte Forest and is covered in huckleberry bushes.

17-Mile Drive Point of Interest 1: Shepherd’s Knoll

Shepherd’s Knoll provides a view of the Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay.

Currently the entrance fee for 17-Mile Drive is $10 per vehicle.  Travelers can recoup the entrance fee by spending $30 at one of nine restaurants within the property.  There are a number of streets branching off of 17-Mile Drive within the gates, but 17-Mile Drive is marked by street signs, wooden road markers, and a red-dashed line down the center of the road to keep visitors on track.

Thank you to the Hofsas House Hotel for hosting our stay in Carmel-by-the-Sea and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.  If you book through them, it costs you nothing extra and we earn a small commission which goes towards running this website and bringing you more travel stories.

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Driving the Scenic Apache Trail

Part of the Apache Trail dirt road follows along the edge of the Salt River.

There are many scenic drives in the USA and one of the great American scenic drives is Arizona’s Apache Trail.  In addition to the natural beauty of this desert trail, travelers will be able to visit some great sites including Goldfield Ghost Town, Tortilla Flat, Roosevelt Dam, and Tonto National Monument.

The Apache Trail is easily reached from Phoenix, Arizona and runs as Highway 88 for approximately 80 miles from Apache Junction, past Apache Lake and Theodore Roosevelt Lake, to the Highway 60-70 junction.  Most travelers turn the drive into a loop, returning to Phoenix via Highway 60.

“The Apache Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have, to me, it is most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful.” - Theodore Roosevelt

Native Americans used the Apache Trail as a migratory route.  Later the road was used to haul construction materials from Phoenix to the Roosevelt Dam.  Construction of the road was started in 1903 and the Tonto Wagon Road was completed in 1905.  After the Roosevelt Dam was completed in 1911, the Apache Trail became a tourist attraction.  The Apache Trail will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2015.

Blooming saguaro cactus along the Apache Trail.

We left Phoenix, heading east, passing saguaro cactus, driving along the Superstition Mountains, to reach our first stop along the Apache Trail, Goldfield Ghost Town.  While Goldfield Ghost Town is by all definitions a tourist attraction, it used to be a real town.  Goldfield became a town in 1892 when they hit gold.  In addition to Mammoth Gold Mine, Goldfield had three saloons, a general store, a boarding house, a blacksmith shop, a brewery, a meat market, and a school house. 

Goldfield Ghost Town's Mammoth Saloon.

Today Goldfield Ghost Town has a number of attractions for visitors.  We started our time riding the Superstition Narrow Gauge Railroad, a 20-minute journey along a mile-and-a-half of track circling Goldfield Ghost Town.  Our train conductor Whiplash provided us with the history of Goldfield and the Superstition Mountains while we rode the rails.

Henry and Charlie waiting for the train.

Next we took a tour of Goldfield Mine.  The Goldfield Mine Tour takes visitors underground in a mineshaft where gold mining equipment and procedures are explained.  A combined ticket to the train, Goldfield Mine, and Mystery Shack can be purchased, so after our tour of the Goldfield Mine we entered the Mystery Shack.  While the Mystery Shack is really more for kids, we still had a lot of fun trying to walk at a 45-degree angle and watch objects seemingly roll uphill.

Learning what it was like for the gold miners.

The Mystery Shack, because why not?

All of the experiences we had in Goldfield Ghost Town were dog friendly.  There are a number of other things to do in Goldfield Ghost Town including the Superstition Zipline, Goldfield’s Historic Museum, Goldfield Livery Stables, Lu Lu’s Bordello at Goldfield, and Gold Panning at Prospector’s Palace.

Goldfield Ghost Town Bordello.

After Goldfield Ghost Town we stopped at Tortilla Flat for lunch.  Tortilla Flat is the remains of an old stagecoach stop.  Superstition Saloon and Restaurant has barstools made of saddles, wallpaper made of customers’ dollar bills, and serves some great chili and burgers.  Be sure to stop in next door at the Country Store for their famous prickly pear ice cream.

The dollar bill wallpapered Superstition Saloon and Restaurant.

About five miles past Tortilla Flat is where the Apache Trail gets a little hairy.  The road turns from paved into dirt, narrows, and becomes windy.  Living in Southern California we have a lot of experience with windy roads running along steep mountains, but we could see how this road might be scary for travelers coming from places with flat roads and few hills or mountains.  But if you’re a brave driver and have a car made for the trip, this scenic drive offers some beautiful desert and river vistas. 

The Apache Trail turns into a dirt road winding through the Arizona desert.

The Apache Trail follows along a branch of Salt River continuing on to where it connects to Theodore Roosevelt Lake, separated by the Theodore Roosevelt Dam.  The Roosevelt Dam was at one time the world’s tallest masonry dam and was built to control the flow of the Salt River and allow for irrigation of the Arizona desert so the land could be farmed.  Just behind the Roosevelt Dam is the Roosevelt Lake Bridge, the longest two-lane, single-span, steel-arch bridge in North America.  The bridge was built to take traffic off the Roosevelt Dam, which is too narrow to allow two-way traffic of modern-day vehicles.

Theodore Roosevelt Dam.

Not far past the Roosevelt Dam is Tonto National Monument, the site of Salado cliff dwellings.  There are two sets of cliff dwellings, the Upper Cliff Dwelling built around 1300 AD and the Lower Cliff Dwelling.  Reaching the Lower Cliff Dwelling involves a half-mile hike uphill from the museum.  Dogs are allowed on the trail and can be carried through the dwelling, but are not allowed to walk through the dwelling.  The Upper Cliff Dwelling is reached by a three-mile roundtrip hike and requires a reservation.  Be cautious.  We ran into a baby rattlesnake on the trail.

The Lower Cliff Dwelling of Tonto National Monument.

The Apache Trail scenic drive will take all day.  We started around 9:00 in the morning and arrived at Tonto National Monument in just enough time to visit the Lower Cliff Dwelling before the park closed.  The Apache Trail is one of America’s great desert scenic drives providing little peeks into America’s Native American, gold mining, and stagecoach history.

Apache Trail Map

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Driving Oregon’s Historic Columbia River Highway

View of the Columbia River Gorge from the Portland Women's Forum State Scenic Viewpoint.

One of the most beautiful days you can spend in Oregon is driving through the Columbia River Gorge.  The Columbia Gorge, just a few miles east of Portland, is a long canyon cut through by the Columbia River.  The Columbia Gorge has historical significance.  Lewis and Clark paddled down the Columbia River.  The Columbia River Highway, one of America's great scenic drives, was built in the early 1900s and was one of the first paved roads in the Pacific Northwest.  Today there is also a major highway that travels through the Columbia River Gorge, but sightseers will want to avoid the interstate and instead follow the slower Historic Columbia River Highway, making stops along the way to enjoy the views, waterfalls, and trails. 

Multnomah Falls.

If starting a tour of the Columbia River Gorge from Portland, the first views of the Columbia Gorge will be seen from the Portland Women’s Forum State Scenic Viewpoint.  There is also a view of the Vista House, which can be visited farther down the road and displays a collection of historical photos.

The Columbia River Gorge has a high concentration of waterfalls, so you’ll need to pick and choose which ones you visit.  Some are right on the side of the road while others require a short hike.  Some of the waterfalls to visit are Latourell Falls, Shepherd’s Dell Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Wahkeena Falls, and many more.  

The most popular waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge is Multnomah Falls, and for good reason.  Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in Oregon, and fourth tallest in the United States.  Multnomah Falls is very picturesque, dropping from the top of the canyon, hitting a pool of water, and dropping off another ledge.  A trail leads up to the arched bridge spanning the upper pool.  If you climb up to the bridge, expect to get wet.

There are some non-nature attractions along the Historic Columbia River Highway as well.  The Bonneville Fish Hatchery is where different species of fish are raised before being released into the river.  The fish can be seen in different holding pools as well as ponds, and very large sturgeon can be seen through viewing windows within the ponds.  

Just across the way are the Bonneville Lock and Dam with a museum about the history of the dam.  Our last stop along the Columbia River Gorge was the Bridge of the Gods, which connects Oregon and Washington.  According to Native American legend there used to be a natural bridge at this spot.

Bridge of the Gods.

It’s easy to lose track of time with so many stops along the Historic Columbia River Highway, so try to set aside an entire day for the trip.  

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