The first out-West road trip I planned was so influenced by random, aesthetic, tourist/influencer trap things I’d seen online.

That’s not to say they were overrated by any means (because we had the best trip ever), but that’s just how I’d gotten my information about them.

So when I’d read that Glass Beach, a little sea glass-ridden beach in Fort Bragg, California, wasn’t worth visiting anymore because of tourists being disrespectful and removing the glass to bring home, I removed it from our itinerary and I was so bummed.

This morning, we were heading up US-1 on the California coast, were super hungry for breakfast after our first night of sleeping in the van, and found ourselves at the earliest open thing: the Fort Bragg McDonald’s.

Glass Beach was within walking distance and I knew I would regret not checking it out anyway. When would I ever be in this part of the country again, and what was the worst that could happen? I’m so glad we did.

According to Wikipedia, the residents of Fort Bragg used this coastline and part of the ocean as a garbage dump from the 1900’s to 1960’s.

The beach is full of small, smooth, pieces of glass that have been worn down over the years. The white specs you see in the photos are all pieces of glass.

We had great timing and arrived during low tide, and it was early enough in the morning that we were totally alone. It was a Friday morning in late August.

It was pretty hazy out all day and you could smell wildfire in the air. The haze turned the sunrise neon pink, and I should have known this would mean a sore throat for the next couple of days.

We spent a little under an hour here, being mindful of time and hightailing it in the drizzling rain to our next stop: the Redwoods.

More information about Glass Beach via Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Beach_(Fort_Bragg,_California)