{"id":3584,"date":"2013-01-08T17:17:16","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T01:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wanderlustforone.com\/?p=3584"},"modified":"2024-07-21T05:02:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T09:02:35","slug":"lone-cypress-letdown-in-pebble-beach-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanderlustforone.com\/staging\/3560\/destinations\/lone-cypress-letdown-in-pebble-beach-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Lone Cypress Letdown in Pebble Beach, California"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lone<\/p>\n

If you want to see the famous Lone Cypress in Pebble Beach, you should know one thing: it’s going to cost you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you don’t do your research and show up in search of the solitary Monterey Cypress standing sentinel on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Pacific Ocean, what sticks with you after your visit may not be the warm memories of a leisurely drive along a spectacular stretch of coastal California. Instead, you may be left reeling from sticker shock.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being from New Jersey, a small state with two major toll roads, paying a fee to drive anywhere doesn’t really phase me (much) but imagine my surprise upon discovering\u00a0there’s a $9.75 fee for visitors to access Pebble Beach’s scenic 17-Mile Drive<\/a> by car.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m not suggesting there shouldn’t be a fee–Pebble Beach is, after all, a gated community and can charge whatever it wants for access–but it might have been nice for this little tidbit of information to be prominently displayed on Pebble Beach’s online guide to 17-Mile Drive<\/a>.\u00a0You see, when you’re traveling in groups of two or three or four, paying $9.75 really isn’t a big deal; the cost per person breaks down to under five bucks and then goes down from there. As a solo traveler on a budget, I found the charge a bit steep.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But I really wanted to see the Lone Cypress so I forked over almost ten bucks and forged ahead.<\/p>\n

Roughly halfway through the drive, another surprise was waiting for me: the Lone Cypress isn’t really alone. <\/strong>It’s an isolated unit within a grove of Monterey Cypress trees. Separate from the others, yes, but certainly not alone.<\/p>\n

\"The
The name implies the Lone Cypress is the only one of its kind, but the reality is it’s the most isolated of a grove of Monterey Cypress trees. It’s merely a matter of perspective…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not only did I feel like I’d been robbed, I also felt like I’d been duped. All because I wasn’t armed with adequate information in advance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After conducting a little post-trip research, I found a\u00a0few tips for visiting the Lone Cypress that I thought I’d share:<\/strong><\/p>\n