You may see a few photos from nearby locations here. Many shoots span multiple spots in the same session.
Lover's Point Park
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Where we shoot, on a map
Lover's Point Park sits at the tip of the Monterey Peninsula in Pacific Grove — five acres of rocky shoreline, a small sandy beach, a stone gazebo, and grass picnic areas, all walk-up accessible. Sea otters drift in the kelp offshore. Cypress trees scatter through the park. Twenty minutes from Carmel, eight minutes from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The shoot for couples whose families include grandparents, strollers, or anyone who can't manage a beach scramble.
Lover's Point is the easy answer for the Monterey Peninsula. You park (free), you walk a few steps, you're on a rocky coastline with sea otters floating in the kelp twenty yards offshore. There's a stone gazebo for ceremonies. There's a small sandy beach you can scramble down to in dress shoes. There's a flat grass lawn with cypress trees for the more posed family-portrait frames. No hike. No permit. No closing time issues. Mobility-accessible in a way almost nothing else on this coast is.
The lay of the land
The Lover's Point story I tell most often is the otter one. A spring engagement session, partner being surprised had grown up in Pacific Grove and had specifically asked her partner to propose somewhere "Pacific Grove specific." He picked Lover's Point on my recommendation. We staged at the rocks on the south side. As they walked up, I had already been clocking three otters drifting in the kelp behind the vantage — close enough that they'd be visible in the frame, far enough that they weren't going anywhere. He dropped to a knee. She said yes. She turned to face the ocean to take a breath and laughed, hard, because there was an otter floating on its back about thirty feet behind her with a piece of kelp draped across its chest like a stole. The frame I took at that moment — her laughing, ring on her hand, the otter on its back behind her — is the only frame from that session that the couple printed huge. The "this place specifically" frame. Lesson I pass on now: Lover's Point will give you a frame the destination puts in for you. You don't have to engineer the magic. Be patient on the rocks, give it the full sixty minutes of light, and something will swim into the gallery.
Make a trip out of it
Where to stay
Getting here
A few things about Lover's Point Park
Lover's Point was originally named 'Lovers of Jesus Point' by the Methodist Episcopal Church when they founded Pacific Grove as a religious retreat in 1875. The 'of Jesus' got dropped from common usage over the decades, and the apostrophe wandered around for nearly a century.
— Wikipedia / Pacific Grove Heritage SocietyPacific Grove was a dry town — alcohol prohibition by city ordinance — from 1875 until 1969. That's nearly a century, one of the longest-running dry-town runs in California history. The Methodist retreat origins are why.
— Pacific Grove Heritage Society / WikipediaThe sea otters drifting in the kelp off Lover's Point are part of the southern sea otter population that nearly went extinct in the early 1900s, hunted for their fur. The species was declared extinct, then a small population was rediscovered off Big Sur in 1938 and has slowly recovered. Federally protected since 1977.
— Monterey Bay Sanctuary / NOAAThe small sandy beach below the bluff is one of the few sandy beaches on the otherwise entirely rocky Pacific Grove coastline. The pocket of sand collects there because of how the headland deflects long-shore currents.
— USGS coastal geologyPacific Grove is officially nicknamed 'Butterfly Town USA' because of the Monarch butterfly migration that overwinters here every year. The main Monarch Sanctuary is about ten minutes from Lover's Point at Monarch Grove Sanctuary on Ridge Road, peaking in November and December.
— City of Pacific Grove / Monarch SanctuaryThe Victorian-era homes that ring Lover's Point are part of the Pacific Grove Heritage Society's protected zone — many date from the 1880s and 1890s when the Methodist retreat town was being built out. The visual character of the neighborhood has been preserved by ordinance for decades.
— Pacific Grove Heritage SocietyThe stone gazebo on the lawn was built in the early 20th century and has hosted somewhere in the tens of thousands of weddings, quinceañeras, and ceremonies over its history. It's the most-photographed structure in Pacific Grove.
— City of Pacific Grove tourism / Pacific Grove Heritage Society
Lover's Point Park also appears as Lovers Point, Lover's Point Beach, Lovers Point Beach, or Lovers of Jesus Point.