Glass Beach - Amazing what one man's trash can become!!

September 19, 2012

The problem with traveling when there is a time change is that even though we thoroughly exhausted ourselves the day before and went to bed about 1 am our time, I was still awake at 6 am my time which was 3 am California time! I was ready to go! I may have snoozed a little on and off after that, but by 5 am I was up at the slider checking to see how light it was outside. I was so disappointed that the sky was still completely black! I don’t think Ryan was all that disappointed because he knows I would have had him up and out of the door in 10 minutes and to Glass Beach across the street!

As it was, I had to wait it out. When Ry got up at 7 to get ready for a morning appointment I also got up and showered and was ready to go before he walked out of the door! I’ll be paying for this by the time I get home, but what are you going to do? I love to travel!!

Our first stop of the day was Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. Simply go down Elm street by Denny’s to the very end. You will walk down a wide trail toward the ocean. This trail is surrounded by raspberry bushes. These bushes are amazingly tall and stretch as far as you can see on either side of the trail! We had to take a minute to pluck some of the juicy berries off and have a nice little breakfast!

When you come to a Y in the trail you need to stay to the left. If you go right you will end up at a nice beach, but it isn’t Glass Beach. Continue to the left hugging the fence that shows where the private property starts. Follow the trail until you think you are going to go over the cliff. When you look down you will see Glass Beach.

Ry and I gracefully scaled the cliff down into the cove. From above it just looks like the beach is covered in rocks.Once you get down into the cove, however, you will be amazed!The beach is entirely covered in sea glass! This area used to be a dump so everything from bottles to cups, to things made out of metal was tossed in the ocean. Over the years, the bottles broke apart and were rubbed smooth by the sand and waves. Ryan did a little digging and found that the glass goes down really deep!We collected some of the glass to bring home. Blue glass is very rare, but we did find some smaller pieces.If the kids had been with us we would have spent hours there!We had to leave way too soon!