17-Mile Drive

The Pacific Improvement Company — a consortium of the four railroad barons who built the transcontinental railroad — laid out this scenic road in 1892, threading through the 5,300-acre Del Monte Forest between Monterey and Carmel. Today the 17-mile loop through the gated community of Pebble Beach charges a toll for nonresidents. The draws are real: Bird Rock, Seal Rock, the Ghost Tree, and the Lone Cypress — a salt-pruned Monterey cypress so closely guarded that Pebble Beach has trademarked its image.