Seaside Beach is the northernmost of three separate sections of Monterey State Beach, so its formal name is Monterey State Beach--Seaside Beach. Just below the public parking lot is often a small lagoon, filled by a small creek, that concentrates gulls. The beach is popular with tourists and locals on weekends or sunny days, and birds disperse when it gets crowed.

The site is better know for sea-watching in late fall and winter, as a large flock of Surf Scoters and other sea-ducks, loons, and grebes forage in or just beyond the surf that hits the shore. A scope is very useful. Sites to seawatch here include the top of the trail through the dunes to the north; from the public walkways on the Hotel or its parking lots; and at the Portola-Crespi Memorial, which is on a bluff south of the Hotel, and reached from another public parking lot at the south end of Sand Dunes Drive.

The beach attracts sandy-shore waders -- Whimbrel, Long-billed Curlew, Sanderlings, Willet -- in season (July-April), plus a a variety of gulls. Heermann's Gulls are generally present in summer; Glaucous-winged, Herring, Iceland (Thayer's), Short-billed and the occasional Ring-billed are among the abundant Western and California Gulls in winter. Osprey or Peregrine Falcon may fly by.

Birds sought among the Surf Scoter and grebe flocks include White-winged and Black Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck (rare), Harlequin Duck (rare); Clark's Grebe among the more abundant Western Grebes; Red-necked Grebe; and the three "usual" winter loons. Common Murre is regular in winter, as are a few Pigeon Guillemot in summer. Rarer alcids sometimes seen include Rhinoceros Auklet, and Marbled or Ancient Murrelet (both rare).

A public parking lot for Seaside Beach is at the foot of Canyon del Rey in Seaside -- take the Canyon del Rey exit from Highway 1 and head towards the ocean. Bear right into the Seaside Beach parking lot (which can be very crowded on sunny days) or bear left towards the Hotel. A multi-flloor Hotel is adjacent to the beach -- currently called Monterey Tides Hotel -- but ownership and hotel name as changed many times in the past. There is public parking on Sand Dunes adjacent to the Hotel, but if you drive farther south on Sand Dunes Drive, it ends in another public parking lot that is located on a bluff above the ocean. A paved walking trail (formerly a road) continues south towards the City of Monterey, and at the first gentle curve left of that trail, you may see the Portola-Crespi Memorial on the beach side (there was once a large cross on this site). This is one of several excellent sites to seawatch for scarcer sea-ducks and others among the large wintering flocks of Surf Scoters..

 The inscription on the memorial, embedded in a boulder, reads: "In the winter of 1769, the Spanish expedition in search of Monterey Bay, under the command of Don Gaspar de Portola and Father Juan Crespi, erected a cross on or near this site and left the following message: 'The land expedition is returning to San Diego for lack of provisions today, December 9, 1769'.”