One Acre of Wild California: The Lester Rowntree Native Plant Garden
Hidden inside Carmel’s Mission Trail Nature Preserve, a volunteer-tended acre of manzanita, sage, and wildflowers honors Lester Rowntree — the self-taught botanist who remade American horticulture from a cottage in the Carmel Highlands.
The Shape of the Market: Carmel and Pebble Beach at Mid-2026
Our first standing market report: what the mid-2026 numbers say about how people choose to live between Carmel Point and the Del Monte Forest — read calmly, with sourced figures and full respect for how small this market’s sample really is.
A Slow Weekend in Paso Robles
Two and a half hours from Carmel, no flight, no schedule: a two-night itinerary built around one wine road, two historic inns, and the art of moving slowly.
Ninety-Nine Years at Gray Gables: The Carmel Art Association Nears Its Centennial
On August 8, 1927, nineteen artists gathered at a cottage called Gray Gables and founded what became the oldest continuously operating gallery in Carmel. One year from its centennial, the cooperative spirit endures on Dolores Street.
The Vineyard Whisperer: Ian Brand and Monterey’s Overlooked Vines
The San Francisco Chronicle’s 2018 Winemaker of the Year works not in Napa but from a Salinas warehouse, championing the Central Coast’s forgotten old-vine sites — and pouring the evidence in Carmel Valley Village.
The Farm Beneath the Wharf: Monterey’s Hidden Abalone Harvest
Beneath Monterey’s 1926 commercial wharf, some 250 cages hold more than a quarter-million red abalone, fed weekly with hand-harvested kelp. The most literal expression of “local” on any Peninsula menu.
The Stage in the Pines: A Century at Carmel’s Forest Theater
Founded in 1910 among the pines above the village, the Forest Theater is one of the oldest outdoor theaters in the American West — and after 116 years of firelight, fog, and Shakespeare, Carmel still shows up with its blankets.
The Whole Coast, Again: Driving Highway 1 from Carmel to Cambria
For the first time in nearly three years, the full Big Sur run is open. Ninety-five miles, one full day: the classic coast drive from Carmel to Cambria, finally whole again.
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Est. 1997 · Carmel-by-the-Sea · California Carmel Life & Times is a celebration of extraordinary people, remarkable places, and the art of beautiful living — along the California coast and beyond. Founded in 1997 in Carmel-by-the-Sea, we have spent nearly three decades telling the stories of a place unlike any other — its artists and […]