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Sea Glass Vacation - Seaside, Monterrey Bay - California -  USA

Sea Glass Vacation - Seaside, California, on the Monterey Bay - a delightful account hunting for sea glass with great photos and tales.

Stephanie and her family exploring this beach for the first time  - with great results.

Featured Beaches

Seaside, Fort Ord Dunes State Park, and Sand City are all along the same stretch of beach just northeast of Monterey, California. This report applies to all of this stretch of beach.

"My family and I recently went to Pacific Grove, CA for our annual family vacation..."
~ Stephanie

After reading about successful sea glass collecting at Seaside State Beach on this site, we decided it was a place we wanted to visit during our trip.

Here are some photos of what I found.

The first photo is of all the glass I found that morning, on a large bath towel, the length of the shower/tub.

Sea Glass Vacation - Monterey Bay Details 1

My brother-in-law, sister-in-law and their 2 children joined my husband, son, daughter and I for the outing.

We arrived at 11:30 AM and parked in the beach parking lot.

Seaside State Beach is very long and is flanked by sand dunes and sand cliffs.

There are few rocky areas along the beach. The initial walk from the parking lot yielded no sea glass, but after about a 1/4 mile we started to see some between the water line and about 5 feet up the sand.

Seaside, Monterrey Bay - California - USA

My husband, 4 year old daughter and 5 year old niece went ahead and the rest of us lingered in one area.

Red Sea Glass Shard Seaside and What Looks Like a Narrow Aperture Bottle lip

My brother-in-law had his swim trunks on and he ventured into the water with a plastic toy sand sifter.

I had mentioned to him I had seen photos of someone in the water with a net scooping up glass as the waves came in. He wanted to give it a try.

He had fantastic results. About every 3 times or so he was finding glass at least an inch in size. We hadn't checked the tide schedule, but later found out it was high tide.

Sea Glass Vacation - A Pink Bottle Neck

I couldn't bring myself to walk any further up the beach because I could see the glass in the water right where the waves were breaking. I decided to go in.

I hadn't anticipated going in the water and had worn jeans. I thought rolling them up would successfully keep them dry. Not so. By the time I was done I was soaked up to hips. It's a good thing I was wearing a belt.

I managed to grab a few great pieces in between waves.

My husband and the girls walked north, to the rocks. When they returned, their sandwich size zipper bags where about 3/4 full. My niece found a large bottom piece of a white glass jar. I didn't get a close look at it, but it did have writing on the bottom. We found a lot of pottery shards as well.

That night I looked up the tide schedule and found that low tide would be at 5:30 AM the next day. My husband jokingly asked if I would be going out in the morning. I said it was too early.

Instinctively, I woke up at 5:30 AM. I couldn't get back to sleep because I was entertaining the thought of going back to Seaside at low tide. I got up and got ready, asked my husband if I was crazy to go out so early and he said to go and have fun.

Sea Glass with Wire Reinforcement

I arrived at the parking lot at 6:15 AM. The parking lot gate was closed. I drove a little further north and found parking near the water treatment plant. This was a good thing because I was already far enough up the beach where glass could be found.

I surveyed the beach for safety before venturing forth. I observed 5 fishermen spread a great distance apart and a couple of morning walkers. It felt safe.

"Bonfire" Glass - Fort Ord Dunes

As I got down to the water I found glass and pottery right away. It was present about every three feet or so, from the water up into the dry sand. There was no need to go in the water this time.

I walked north about 45 minutes, just past the rocks and then decided to turn back. I spoke to one fisherman along the way who advised me he has bags and bags of sea glass at home. He uses it in his planters and pots.

On the walk back there was more glass to be found.

Sea Glass Vacation - Seaside, Monterey Bay, CA - USA Details 2

After 1.5 hours, my gallon size zipper bag was full to the top and quite awkward to carry.

My prize finds were a large coke bottle shard and a pink bottle neck shard."

All in all, what a satisfying Sea Glass Vacation - Seaside, California, on the Monterey Bay.

More Seaside and Fort Ord Dunes, California sea glass:

Sea Glass - Seaside, California

Seaside, California

Seaside, California Sea Glass

Sand City, Calif.

Seaside Sea Glass Catch

Seaside, CA - Sea Glass Rainbow