Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, California

Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, California is a really cool place to visit. It's not a far walk from where you park, but the steps were a little shady getting down to the beach. Hopefully they will be filled in soon, but if not, just take your time to get down there.  Just as the name implies, the area is filled with sea glass! 

How and why is there so much sea glass at Glass Beach in Fort Bragg?

The paired down story is: This area was a garbage dump in times past. All the glass that was chucked over the hillside eventually was smoothed by the water and that nasty pile of garbage turned into a shore of sea glass glistening like gems stones. It is truly incredible that the design of our Earth enables it to take trash and turn it into what you see above! 

What should I do at Glass Beach and what should I NOT do?

Do:

• Walk around and be awed by the glass
• Glass Hunt -- Find different colors of glass (you can trace the age of some glass by its color. We enjoyed searching for dark blue pieces. They were tiny, but there!!)
• Climb rocks, carefully
• Admire the plants and flowers that grow through the crags
• Have a picnic
• Get some vitamin D from the sun
• Get your feet wet!
• Take lots of photos
• Look IN the water and little puddles for neat water plants and small shell creatures
• Pick up litter and throw it away to keep this place cool
  

Love these bright succulents

PLEASE DON'T:

• Please don't take sea glass with you

Please search and admire the sea glass for fun and don't take it home.

Why not?

Glass Beach is shrinking. And it's shrinking because people are taking bags of the sea glass home with them. Some people create incredible things with it, some people end up losing the glass anyhow. But either way, according to fortbragg.com:

 "A note from California State Parks regarding Glass Beach at MacKerricher State Park:  “All park cultural features are protected by law and may not be removed or disturbed, including glass found at Glass Beach.”"

So it's actually against the law to take glass home. We saw, sadly, several people sifting through and taking a big bag home with them. :-( Imagine that, all day every day.. and you can see why this beach is shrinking. It takes more time to create the sea glass than it does to scoop a handful of it up and run away.

There are plenty of ways you can enjoy the sea glass, without taking away from the experience of this place for others in the future. Consider staging some cool photos, maybe a seaglass stack photo or something, and get a nice print or canvas of it for your home. It will keep the memory fresh and make great decor. 

Travel Feet! My Sanuk Yoga Slings were happy to be at Sea Glass Beach in Fort Bragg!

Puppy Paws! I think this guy was happy to be out also. This is a view when standing at Glass Beach and looking up. (Stairs were to the right of this frame)

Have you been to the Mendocino Coast? Fort Bragg? Glass Beach? 

What was your favorite thing? 

Coming Up Next... Point Arena Light House

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About this post

• All photos unless otherwise noted were taken with:
  ​Nikon D3200 worn cross-body with an incredible custom leather camera strap from RSVP handcrafted
• Swell Vision Sunglasses: Alani Style
• Shoes: Sanuk Yoga Sling 2
• Airbnb Accomodations: Sign up discount $20 off your first stay 
• Priceline Rental Car: Mustang