Point Lobos Monterey Cypress

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve in California, created during millions of years of geologic upheaval, boasts one of only two natural stands of Monterey cypress trees remaining on earth. These trees in the Cypress Grove Trail, 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. Point Lobos State Natural Reserve was originally acquired to protect these gnarled trees.