Point Lobos, a rocky headland on California’s central coast near Carmel-by-the-Sea and Big Sur, is renowned for exceptional marine richness shaped by unusual geology and nutrient-rich upwelling from the nearby Carmel submarine canyon. Its kelp forests, protected waters, and shoreline habitats make it a major destination for diving and one of only two native sites of Monterey cypress. Human use stretches back about 2,500 years to Ohlone occupation near San Jose Creek. Later it passed through rancho ownership disputes, supported Chinese fishing, granite quarrying, and Portuguese whaling, and was ultimately preserved after a failed subdivision, becoming one of California’s most visited coastal reserves.