A trek along the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail offers a buffet of eye candy at all times of year. While the Monterey stretch especially dazzles during late summer, the leg tracing Pacific Grove’s claim of the Peninsula schedules its own show-stopping performance for the spring. Sure, the ice plants that run along each side of the trail may be invasive, but we let that slide between March and May, and capitulate to the intoxicating and fleeting bursts of purple, yellow and orange that emerge from the dense green carpet. Despite this blossoming beauty, it’s still only wallpaper to the season’s main attraction – a cherished local event that reemphasizes the vibrant and diverse community of wildlife that calls the county and Monterey Bay home.
Entering Pacific Grove on the trail, headed northbound from Monterey, you might see a gaggle of people pressed against the chain-link fence, intently watching the beach outside of Hopkins Marine Station. In spring, the protected coastline hosts a colony of pregnant harbor seals going into labor, giving birth to their pups, nursing them, and teaching them how to swim and hunt. A few minutes can offer a view of some of the cutest babies the animal kingdom has to offer. Revisit over the course of a few days and the beach turns into a stage, with a returning cast of characters acting out a dramatic (and sometimes comedic) story of life’s natural cycle. [CN]