Landscape artist Francis McComas referred to Point Lobos as "the greatest meeting of land and water in the world". The fomer site of a turn-of -the-century whaling and abalone industry, it's now a much treasured(and much visited) state reserve; it was named by the Spanish because the barking of sea lions on the rocks offshore reminded them of wolves. This area contains beautiful headlands, coves and rolling meadows. The water along the Point Lobos coastline, which contains almost one half of the reseve, is one of the richest underwater habitats in the world thanks to the mineral-rich water upwelling from the depths of submarine canyons only a mile offshore. Sea otters and other marine mammals abound. During the summer, fog often shrouds the coast until mid-day.