South of town the land turns wild at Point Lobos, the granite-and-cypress headland often called the crown jewel of California's state parks, where sea otters raft in the kelp and the surf breaks white against the rocks. Monterey Bay itself is a drowned submarine canyon — deep, cold, and astonishingly rich with life — which is why the old Hovden cannery at the end of the Row was reborn in 1984 as a place to look at the sea instead of empty it. The same water that built the canneries now draws people to watch whales and otters in it.
Our Monterey logo carries California's grizzly bear and lone star above “California Republic — Est. 1850,” the shared retro emblem of our California places, drawn in worn black-and-white like an old crate label or cannery stamp. The 1850 marks the year Monterey was incorporated as a city — the same year California became a state. The bear is the through-line that links Monterey to every other California town we make; what makes this one Monterey is everything around it — the first capital, the adobes, the canneries, and the bay.
Why People Visit Monterey
Monterey rewards visitors who want the original California — the first capital, a town of 18th-century adobes, and a deep, wild bay. People come for the Path of History and Cannery Row, for Point Lobos and the marine sanctuary, and for an easy, scenic stretch of Central Coast where Spanish-colonial heritage and a famous waterfront sit side by side.
