Since the world has changed this year I had to rethink how to celebrate my 34th birthday. I took a day off and knew that I wanted to do a road trip. Glass beach is 3.5 hours away from the Bay Area, so it was the perfect location.

The drive was very windy for about 1.5 hours on a 2 lane road. Halfway through the drive, we drove through the Redwoods. It was very unexpected. Once we got to Fort Bragg, it was such a cute small town. Lots of little shops and restaurants. A very walkable town along the beach. I thought that Glass Beach was going to be super busy but there was plenty of parking. Maybe because it was a work day. We walked down the beach, since there was a lot of people at the main beach, we went to the right. When we got to the sand, I was very confused because I was dying to see the glass. Instead all I saw was sand. Boring regular sand. I didn’t drive 3.5 hours for regular sand. Where was the glass?!?

So we were on the hunt for glass. We figured that all of the glass was where the people were. At the boring sand beach we were the only ones there. It was so private. Very peaceful.

It took some walking to find the glass but we did and it was everywhere. It was so cool. Such smooth multi colored glass mixed with smooth rocks. This might have been the best beach I have ever been on. There wasn’t any sand anywhere and I HATE sand. It gets everywhere and sticks to you. But this beach was different. There were dime sized glass and rocks instead of sand. The hardest color to find on the beach was blue. I guess there isn’t much recycled glass that’s blue or that’s what most people steal when they take the glass when they are not supposed to.

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Glass Beach was cooler than expected. The was so much glass and not a lot people. The perfect combo! I read the history of Glass Beach online, it was fascinating. After the 1906 earthquake, they created a water trash dump in Fort Bragg. All of the glass in the trash would come to shore. After years and years of waves, the glass became smooth. After reading this history about Glass Beach, I had a new appreciation for all of the glass on the beach. I highly recommend going to this beach if you are visiting or live in Northern California.