Salinas Outdoor Activities

The team at Tropical Adventures Scuba and Travel teaches classes, repairs equipment, and plans diving trips, all with a focus on building an active scuba community. Seasoned instructors with NAUI and PADI certification lead beginners from the classroom to the ocean, where they meander through kelp forests and master the art of underwater basket weaving. Experts coordinate travel to premier international and local dive sites such as Catalina Island, aiming to make the three to five yearly trips affordable and fun. The crew also recommends new and used gear for purchase or rental, including Oceanic booties, Tusa masks, and radar equipment that helps divers avoid traveling mermaid salesmen.

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, the former estate of philanthropist and art collector Miss Ima Hogg, was completed in 1928 according to classical designs by renowned Houstonian architect John F. Staub. The elegant mansion houses the Early American decorative arts and paintings collection of Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, a congregation of nearly 2,600 furnishings, paintings, and ceramics that populates 28 period rooms in the carefully renovated house. The objects date back as far as 1620, letting the viewer observe the evolution of American taste from the Colonial to Victorian eras. Bayou Bend’s eye-widening assemblage of still lifes, armchairs, and silver was labeled a “treasure-trove” of Americana by Frommer’s, as well as a “must-see” for antiques collectors and gardeners.

The mansion at Bayou Bend is flanked by 14 acres of formal gardens and natural woodlands. Hogg designed the formal gardens as outdoor rooms for hobnobbing and decorated them with statues of a goddess and two muses, inspiring the northern blooms to write sonnets about honeybees. Today, organic gardening methods maintain the flourishing magnolias and crape myrtles.

Cleaved through the tall pines of the Del Monte Forest, Poppy Hills Golf Course's 18-hole layout blankets the scenic terrain of the Monterey Peninsula with a 6,857 trail of meticulously manicured fairways and greens. Designed by renowned course architect Robert Trent Jones II, Poppy Hills has hosted many high-profile golf events, including co-hosting the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am from 1991 to 2009, a 19-year span during which Bill Murray never left.

Named one of California's Top 10 Courses You Can Play, Poppy Hills gives casual golfers a chance to test their mettle on a world-class course—the 426-yard fifth hole was rated the most difficult par four in PGA Tour play in 2006—with four tee options that make it surmountable for golfers of all stripes. Though its known for its woodland scenery and large, undulating greens, the par 72 course also features water hazards that come into play on two holes, gobbling up golf balls and serving as a convenient vacation spot for fish trying to spend a weekend away from the Pacific.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course designed by Robert Trent Jones II

• Length of 6,857 yards from the farthest tees

• Course rating of 74.3 from the farthest tees

• Slope rating of 144 from the farthest tees

• Four tee options

• Scorecard

Inaugurated in 1991 as a 350-athlete competitive summit, the Sea Otter Classic has blossomed into a sprawling event with more than 50,000 spectators, 10,000 cyclists, and 300 vendors peddling bikes and gear with demos and samples of new products. Situated within Laguna Seca, the festival draws amateur and professional athletes into competitive mountain- and road-bike races, and recreational cyclists behold Monterey County's striking vistas in three Gran Fondo routes. Children's bike events plant the seeds for the next generation of cyclists with a skill-developing play zone and friendly races.

From the shore, Seal Rock—with its rounded crags and compact shape—looks like an oversize filet mignon floating on the Pacific Ocean. Upon closer examination, one can see its silhouette shifting as hundreds of sea lions atop the rock bob their heads or dive into the water. In addition to hosting this majestic hoard, the rock makes for a popular stop for Segway Santa Cruz tours, which peer at it from shore on their way to other sights. Aboard eco-friendly two-wheelers, guides lead groups along Westcliff Drive en route to an array of seaside attractions, including Santa Cruz Lighthouse and Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, as well as Santa Cruz Wharf's boardwalk, restaurants, and shops. The tours are even open to guests with no experience driving a segway, as guides prep each person on the machine's workings before taking off on sightseeing around the town.

Perched at the helm of Monterey Waterfront & Cannery Row Tours, author, historian, and fourth-generation Monterey native Tim Thomas leads tour-goers on a voyage back through time. He enlightens groups on the area's past, stopping frequently to appreciate the people and occupations that have made the bay a cultural cornucopia. Fisheries seize the spotlight during the primary tour, which focuses on Monterey's ascension as one of the world's biggest fishing ports because of its fishermen's ability to talk the salmon into jumping into the boats. By special arrangement, tour-takers can also reel in facts during a jaunt through Nihonmachi—or Japan Town—or a spooky-story-packed exploration of the Monterey Cemetery.