Pacific Grove Museum: Area natural history comes alive
OK, I’ll admit this straight out: When we venture to another city, museums aren’t usually the top of our list. There is normally so much to see, experience and live on the streets and outdoors. But sometimes a museum just stands out. Take the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History in Monterey County for one.
The museum is a little place with a huge heart that invites visitors – adults and kids alike – to not just look but to touch, hear, play and feel. Dang amazing really for a museum that opened in 1883 and still, in part, exists in one of its original historic buildings on a side street in Pacific Grove.
Living showcase at the Natural History Museum
This is a showcase of nature and history, birds and wildlife, flowers and geology of the Central Coast of California. Wondered about the Monarch Butterflies and their annual migration to Pacific Grove? Don’t just look at pretty pictures, come to the Pacific Grove Museum to learn about Monarch Butterflies see what it’s all about.
Bears? Yup, a big stuffed one in the main exhibit room that looks ready to pounce. Orca whales? Push buttons to hear a number of different songs and what they mean.
Flowers? Aside from the Annual Wildflower Show in mid-April (2015 was the 54th year!) that HI Travel Tales visited and wrote about, there is an intimate native plants and flowers garden on the grounds. But it’s not your everyday run-of-the-mill garden that only attracts your grandmother. It has arbors and benches and even a most amazing so-called “Spirit Nest” — a hanging circular entwinement of branches that begs to be sat in (definitely encouraged).
Hands-on fun for kids and adults at the Pacific Grove Museum
This museum is hands-on to the nth degree. Kids can go on a scavenger hunt where they have to track down answers and find things in the museum … like a whale’s eyeball! Once completed, they take the form to the Pacific Grove Museum gift shop (which in itself has a really cool collection of goodies) and they get to pick out a small piece of
Pyrite (a.k.a. fool’s good) to take home. All included in the admission price. In the native plant garden, they (you too!) can dig around in a “fossil pit” and find a real fossil to take home.
Our award-winning photos make a perfect gift – to yourself, a friend, or a family member. Prints for a wall, on a desk, as greeting cards, cozy fleece blankets, ornaments, fridge magnets, coffee mugs, luggage tags, coasters, mouse pads and puzzles. Subscriber Club members get 25% off any order!
Did we say yet this museum is cool? According to the Pacific Grove Museum’s website, its mission is to inspire discovery, wonder, and stewardship of our natural world.
Yup!
Click here to see hours, get directions and find a link to admission prices.
Discover more things to do in Monterey
Pin This!
Our Most Recent Travel Stories
Stollen 1930: gin tasting inside a 600-year-old Austrian cave
Stollen 1930 in Kufstein, Austria, boasts one of the largest collections of gins in the world, deep inside an historic cave carved into the rocks beneath the fortress walls. It’s a remarkable place to visit, even for those who don’t love or even like gin.
Craignair Inn – a sustainable MidCoast Maine waterfront hotel
Looking for a great MidCoast Maine waterfront hotel? We’d recommend the Craignair Inn on the Maine coast, ideally located on the St. George peninsula, historic, cozy, secluded and yet so close to great sights.
Hartstone Inn’s Electric Daisy restaurant in Camden a delight + bonus recipe
Hartstone Inn’s new Electric Daisy restaurant in Camden, Maine, offers creative, sustainable food that showcases local farms and foods. Plus, many of Chef Dustin Shockley’s dishes include the Szechuan pepper flower called “electric daisy” for an extra tongue-tingling delight. Subscriber Club members get an insider bonus recipe.
Stollen 1930: gin tasting inside a 600-year-old Austrian cave
Stollen 1930 in Kufstein, Austria, boasts one of the largest collections of gins in the world, deep inside an historic cave carved into the rocks beneath the fortress walls. It’s a remarkable place to visit, even for those who don’t love or even like gin.
Craignair Inn – a sustainable MidCoast Maine waterfront hotel
Looking for a great MidCoast Maine waterfront hotel? We’d recommend the Craignair Inn on the Maine coast, ideally located on the St. George peninsula, historic, cozy, secluded and yet so close to great sights.
Hartstone Inn’s Electric Daisy restaurant in Camden a delight + bonus recipe
Hartstone Inn’s new Electric Daisy restaurant in Camden, Maine, offers creative, sustainable food that showcases local farms and foods. Plus, many of Chef Dustin Shockley’s dishes include the Szechuan pepper flower called “electric daisy” for an extra tongue-tingling delight. Subscriber Club members get an insider bonus recipe.
As an affiliate for Get Your Guide, Amazon.com, iVisa, Global Rescue, Think Tank, 5.11, Kuhl, Adorama, and others, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you should you choose to purchase through the links in our posts. It is essential to mention that we only endorse products we believe in and personally use. Your support for HI Travel Tales through these purchases allows us to maintain a sustainable platform for creating valuable and relevant content for you.
