A Visit to Glass Beach in California – Please Don’t Take Our Trash

Photo: (Above) Waves rolling onshore at Glass Beach, MacKerricher State Park, Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, California

A Visit to Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, California -Please Don’t Take Our Trash.

I was out of the office for most of October traveling or working on outside projects. Among my travels was a much-needed getaway with my wife to the romantic coastal town of Mendocino, California.  While there, we chose to visit the well-known Glass Beach in the nearby town of Fort Bragg. I’d been there years ago while working on my book projects. However, this would be my wife’s first visit, and she loves beachcombing. The big draw at this location is a large amount of beach glass, hence its name. But quite a bit has changed since my last visit.

What is Beach Glass?

Beach glass at Glass Beach, MacKerricher State Park, Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, California.

Beach glass is simply broken glass that has been tumbled in the surf and polished smooth. It’s the same wave action that polishes the small rocks that you find in the sand. Different color beach glass comes from different color (usually) bottles. There are lots of white (clear), green, amber, and brown bits of glass. Every so often you’ll find more exotic colors like blue, red, purple, or pink.

Why here?

What appears pretty at first may not be all it seems. Take for example this quaint little waterfall streamlet that flows out to the beach.

From the latter part of the 19th-century until the middle part of the 20th-century, Glass Beach was the Fort Bragg town garbage dump. Yes, that’s right; the town used to haul their old cars, stoves, cans, bottles, and all sorts of other refuge and dumped it onto one of Northern California’s pristine beaches. All of those broken glass bottles got tossed around in the waves until they became the smooth, attractive keepsake collectible bits that littered the shoreline. And that’s part of the problem: Too many visitors love collecting beach glass.

Please Don’t Take Our Trash!

We arrived at the entrance to Glass Beach to find a new parking area with restrooms. Paved pathways lined with signs led out toward the ocean. Several signs requested people to please not collect the beach glass. In specific words: “Please Don’t Take Our Trash.”

It’s quite simple really; If everyone takes home a handful of beach glass — despite the fact that it started off as trash in a city dump — eventually there will be no more of this beach glass for future visitors to enjoy. So while they certainly don’t want you to leave your trash here anymore, they also don’t want you taking away any of their trash because, well… their trash has become a tourist attraction.

Also, because Glass Beach has now become part of MacKerricher State Park, it’s illegal to remove *anything* from the beach. (Although, I don’t think they’d mind if you picked up some stray modern litter like someone’s leftover bag of McDonald’s food wrappers or a Starbucks drink cup.)

Unfortunately, the stairway that led down to the beach washed away during severe storms in 2017. There’s now a fence with No Trespassing signs surrounding the bulk of (the official) Glass Beach. I saw a sign saying something about plant rehabilitation. Since there are no plants on the beach itself, I wondered if this was just a convenient tactic by the California State Parks to dissuade access. Access would be a bit tricky anyway until a new staircase is built.

What else is there?

This is still a very beautiful spot along the northern part of the Fort Bragg coastline. There are paved walking paths atop the coastal bluffs where you can watch for whales, boats, and passing seabirds. There are a few small coves you can still access to see some of the famed beach glass. You can also see how the years of garbage dumping has stacked itself into layers that an archeologist might someday unearth. There is so much broken ‘stuff’ – along with wires, chunks of twisted metal and shards of all shapes and sizes. Be sure to watch your step. This is not a place to walk barefoot on the beach. To the north, there are other small beaches, coves, and coastal rocks to explore while walking along trails in the grassy bluffs leading toward Pudding Creek.

More Info:

To get to Glass Beach: if you’re heading north through the town of Fort Bragg from the Noyo River Bridge, turn left (west) on West Elm Street. Follow the street toward the ocean until you reach the parking lot. For additional area information, you can check out my books on The California Coast, Backroads of the California Coast, and for photographers, Photographing California: Vol.1-North.

—

Gary Crabbe is an award-winning commercial and editorial outdoor travel photographer and author based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. He has seven published books on California to his credit, including “Photographing California; v1-North”, which won the prestigious 2013 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal award as Best Regional title. His client and publication credits include the National Geographic Society, the New York Times, Forbes Magazine, TIME, The North Face, Subaru, L.L. Bean, Victoria’s Secret, Sunset Magazine, The Nature Conservancy, and many more. Gary is also a photography instructor and consultant, offering both public and private photo workshops. He also works occasionally a professional freelance Photo Editor.

Follow me on FACEBOOK – INSTAGRAM – TWITTER

*** If you like this post, I would greatly appreciate it if you’d consider sharing this with your friends using one of the Social Media sharing buttons located at the top or bottom of this post. You can also sign up to receive free updates by email when future posts are made to this blog.

—