The beach is busy with beach-goers on weekends or sunny days. Birders generally go there to either check out the gull flocks (especially in winter), or to look through the Surf Scoter flocks for rarer ducks (also in winter),

Western and California Gulls are the common species. Scarcer gulls here, in declining numbers, include Glaucous-winged, Herring, Iceland (Thayer's), Short-billed, and Ring-billed. Multiple hybrids or intergrades occur regularly in winter, mostly Western x Glaucous-winged, but also other matches. The Surf Scoter flocks may have White-winged or Black Scoter, or Long-tailed Duck (all of these rare), in winter.

Marina State Beach is at the west end of Reservation Road in Marina; there is a Reservation Road exit on Highway 101. 

There are extensive coastal dunes both north and south of the main access to Marina State Beach. Access to the dunes is closed in order to preserve endangered plants and butterflies, except for one access trail at the north end of Dunes Road. Dunes Road heads north off Reservation Road just west of the Highway 101 intersection, and passes an upscale hotel, a RV park, and neighborhoods. At the north end one can find 'rough' parking on either side of Dunes Road. The access trail is sign-posted and is fenced on both sides all the way to the beach access. There is a small summering population of Horned Lark that breed in the dunes, and Snowy Plovers breed on the coastal side of dunes.