Point Lobos State Natural Reserve near Carmel, Calif.

Groves of Monterey Cypress cover the rocky shoreline at Point Lobos State Reserve, three miles south of Carmel. Admission to the reserve is $10 a car. Many visitors dodge that cost by parking along Highway 1 and walking in. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

May 17, 2013 5:14 PM PT

Read the story: POSTCARDS FROM THE WEST | Standing before the Lone Cypress

If the Lone Cypress stands for persistence, beauty and grace amid adversity, its distant cousin, the Old Veteran cypress of Point Lobos, stands for a grittier sort of staying power. The Old Veteran hunkers down on a cliff top, its trunk bleached nearly white, roots groping the air, branches splayed by the wind (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Visitors walk beneath a canopy of trees in Allan Memorial Grove. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Strands of lace lichen hang from the trees along Lace Lichen Trail in Point Lobos. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Orange, fluffy green algae grows on the trees and rocks of the north-facing slopes along Cypress Grove trail. The algae gets its orange color from carotene and doesn’t harm the trees. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Succulents grow in a rock at Point Lobos. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Wildflowers grow next to poison oak, keeping the hikers on the trail. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A Seaside Painted Cup shows its colors at Point Lobos. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Kim Weston, grandson of the late photography legend Edward Weston, stands in his grandfather’s darkroom. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Kim Weston talks about the works of his father, Cole, and uncle Brett as he sits on the rocks at Weston Beach, named after his grandfather, in Point Lobos.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)