The Glass Beach: One of California's Hidden Treasures

California holds many natural treasures to explore.  That's one of the reasons I decided to move here from Pennsylvania.  Don't get me wrong, PA is gorgeous too, but every since I visited California back in 2011 I fell in love with the state and its natural diversity.  Today I want to take you to one of a kind place in north part of the state, a place that is on a bucket list of many Californians and world vagabonds alike: The Glass Beach.

In order to find the place you need to locate a little, quiet town called Fort Bragg.  One way to get there is to take the uber scenic Highway 1 that goes alongside of the coast.  I decided to drive through equally scenic redwood forests, with roads so curvy that anything above 30 miles per hour was just not possible.  It was a long but splendid and picturesque drive.    

The general scenery is absolutely beautiful! Rocky cliffs and beating waves is a sight in itself.  And if the weather is nice, you got yourself some spectacular colors to boot.

What most people don't know is that there are 3 Glass Beaches, all in close proximity with one another.  They do not have a glamorous past either.  The story goes that there used to be 3 different dump sites for the locals to discard glass, metal, even appliance and rusty cars.  The locations were accessible to people by foot and a short climb down the cliffs.  The last dump site was finally closed in 1967 by the California State Water Resources, and a clean up program was established to try to reverse the damage done to the coastal habitat.  The metal parts were removed and only the glass remained, which, under the constant movement of water got broken down to little pieces and polished up into smooth, colorful little gems.

 
Now the Glass Beach is a sought after tourist attraction, and every day it hosts many visitors from different states and countries.  During my trip there I met a family that came all the way from Utah just to see this famous site.  Many people like to collect the glassy pebbles but taking them home is highly discouraged and frowned upon, due to diminishing amounts of glass.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, in 2012 a proposal was written to make efforts to replenish the beach with more glass but to my knowledge, it wasn't approved.

I had some genuine fun on the beach during my visit, climbing the cliffs and looking for the most unusual glass pieces.  I have made a little short Vlog from the adventure, so feel free to watch it by clicking the video below: