This nice seawatching location overlooks part of Del Monte beach in the City of Monterey. Here there are fine boardwalks across the dunes, some ending in overlooks with benches, all adjacent to free public parking along Tide Avenue. The dunes and the sandy beach below are popular with the public on weekends and in sunny weather, so there are times that parking may be several blocks away. The site is accessed via the stop-light at Del Monte Avenue and Casa Verde Way, turning north and then up to the overlooking mesa via a one-way series of residential streets: Surf Way, to Tide Avenue, to Beach Way. Parking adjacent to the dune boardwalks in on Tide Avenue and the northern end of Beach Way (which also has public pit-toilet restrooms).

Viewing conditions are best in the morning, with the sun to you back, and gradually diminish until the sun is in your face in late afternoon. In late fall, winter, and early spring, large flocks of Surf Scoters and Western Grebes will be in or just beyond the surf at the beach.  A scope is very helpful here, and usually required to locate rarities.

This is an excellent spot in winter to search for rare sea-ducks — White-winged and Black Scoter (rare but regular) among abundant Surf Scoter, Common Goldeneye (regular) and Barrow's Goldeneye (rare) among Bufflehead; Long-tailed Duck (rare) or Harlequin Duck (quite rare) among scoter flocks — and also Clark's Grebe (small numbers) or Red-necked Grebe (uncommon) or Yellow-billed Loon (very rare) among the regular Eared and Horned Grebes, and among the regular Common, Red-throated, and Pacific Loons. In summer Pigeon Guillemot occurs among more regular Common Murres. Rare alcids can be present during or after storms at any time, including Rhinoceros and Cassin's Auklet, or Marbled and Ancient Murrelet (all quite unusual). On the sandy beach, look for Long-billed Curlew among godwits, Willets and Whimbrels; Sanderlings are common in season.

Monterey's Del Monte seawatch is the southernmost of several seawatching spots overlooking the eastern edge of Monterey Bay. These seawatching locations are located on bluffs overlooking sandy beaches; the sandy beach below this seawatch is the northern portion of Del Monte Beach, which begins at the base of the commercial wharf (Wharf #2) in Monterey Harbor, and continues east and north to the City of Seaside.

From the Del Monte Seawatch a birder can scope only a certain distance out to sea, or north or south. To the south there is another Hot Spot called "Monterey--Del Monte Beach" which is used primarily by those walking along the sandy beach from the Fishermans Wharf vicinity eastwards. The border between the Del Monte Beach hot spot and the Del Monte Seawatch hot spot is "soft," with overlap likely. Given that Del Monte Beach is quite long, stretching north to Seaside, the location of rarities should be reported by giving directions (or lat-long) to their actual location. Use the comments section of the Hot Spot checklist to give these directions.

The boardwalks through the dunes are quite nice but are not ADA Wheelchair accessible (e.g., not paved nor a smooth surface), but one could seawatch from the north end of Beach Way on pavement. There are various steep sandy trails down to the beach.