Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds
Asilomar State Beach is located on the Monterey Peninsula in the city of Pacific Grove. Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds is located on 107 acres (433,000 square meters) has views of the forest, sand, and surf and offers overnight lodging. The beach itself is a narrow 1 mile (1.6 km) strip of land with a sandy beach and rocky coves, as well a a 3/4-mile (1.2 km) walking trail. Asilomar State Beach is part of the Pacific Grove Fish Garden Refuge and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The waters off Asilomar State Beach are clear, cold, and range in color from light turquoise to deep blue.
The Asilomar Conference Grounds started as a YWCA camp and conference site in 1913. The historic buildings of the Conference Grounds (which have been designated a National Historic Landmark) were designed by the architect Julia Morgan, who was the architect of over 700 buildings in California and is probably most famous as the architect of Hearst Castle near San Simeon. The State of California has owned the Asilomar Conference Grounds since 1956. The grounds are available to visitors for conference use and overnight stays. The California State Parks training facility, the William Penn Mott, Jr. Training Center, is located on the grounds. Conference facilities range from the 650-seat Merrill Hall to accomodations for small meetings. The Conference Grounds were designed to be free from interruptions – there are no televisions or telephones in the 314 guest rooms. One famous conference held at the facility in 1975 was the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA, which was held to obtain agreement on policies to govern genetic engineering research.
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