Take a Trip to Pacific Grove's Magic Carpet

The spectacular, salty-air'd spread of ice plants is a springtime favorite.

WHAT'S VIBRANT, TEMPORARY, AND NOT COLD, despite its chilly-sounding name? It's the ice plant, which is also known as the magic carpet. If you've seen it, you've likely never forgotten it, and you probably took about 37 photographs, if you had a camera in your hand. For the floral spread of close-to-the-ground buds is about as colorful as plants get. Add its proximity to the ocean — not always a must, but, around California, a common sight — and you've got a blossom that comes with a readymade Pacific background. Where, though, to see such spectacular petals in all of their super-neon-y purpleness? And pinkness, too? You may have caught a glimpse of surf-close color, here and there, as you traveled about the Golden State, but you if you know your magic carpets, you know that...

PACIFIC GROVE... and other spots around Monterey County are rather lush with lovely ice plant cover come the spring. The Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail is a dependable spot for magic carpets come April and May, with "magenta" being the hue of the area. If you can't wait for later April to see this yearly display, The Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau has suggested a number of other spots in the area to witness the wowza springtime show. Find poppies, wild irises, sky lupine, and daffodils, as well as other flowers, along trails, in parks, and near the Pacific in the coming weeks. Delightful details? They're blooming on this page now.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us