Butterfly House Beach

Butterfly House Beach lies on the protected south side of Carmel-by-the-Sea, reached from Scenic Road at Stewart Way by a short but steep footpath just north of the private residence that gives the site its name. The Butterfly House is a mid-century home whose folded, wing-shaped roof is the local landmark divers use to find the trailhead.

The offshore reef is a field of granite monoliths that rise 15 to 20 feet from a 40- to 60-foot bottom, arranged in some areas into tall tower-like structures and in others into closer groupings with valleys and small caves between them. Giant kelp roots densely on that granite, forming a kelp forest biome above the pinnacles. Between the pinnacles and along the shallow line at 5 to 15 feet, bare granite and cobble form a rocky reef biome distinct from the kelp-covered rock. The pinnacles themselves, with 15 to 20 feet of vertical relief and narrow ravines threading between them, give the site a canyon biome as well.

Scuba divers and freedivers use the site, and the granite structure damps moderate swell into a diveable entry, though rocks in the surf line and heavy swell days can close the beach out. Roadside parking on Scenic Road has no lot and no fee, and residential street spaces fill on summer weekends. Fishing and spearfishing for finfish are legal inside the Carmel Bay SMCA, and all invertebrates are protected.