Gary Vickers fell in love with the affluent seaside retreat of Carmel, Calif., as a child. Caddying for his father and uncle at the Bing Crosby National Pro-Amateur golf tournament at Pebble Beach each February, he admired the rocky coastline with its cutout coves and looked up at the giant redwoods as they traveled up to Big Sur.

“I loved the wild beauty of it,” he said. “It had a big impression on me.”

Today, Mr. Vickers, a former software entrepreneur, owns his own Carmel compound, complete with a main lodge and four smaller “cottages” on a site of over 4 acres. The property, known as the Seven Coves of Spindrift and set amongst a mature Cypress forest, is coming on the market for $52.375 million.