Day & night at Glass Beach

Published by

Caitlyn

on

October 14, 2025

I have so many feelings about Glass Beach.

When I was planning our first road trip in 2023, it caught my eye on social media and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Tiny pieces of rainbow colored sea glass washed ashore that people are fabled to leave with by the bucket full? No way. When we became pressed for time on our jam-packed itinerary, it was one of the things that fell off the list.

Still, when we ended up in that section of the Pacific Coast anyway and I knew it wasn’t THAT far away, and I knew I would never have another excuse to be over there… I couldn’t just not go.

And it was a little side quest that we still talk about all the time. So earlier this year when we figured that we would return to the area after all, you know we couldn’t resist planning a return visit. Two of ’em.

Visit #1: Friday, September 5

We got here at 2pm and were staaarving from our aimless walk in the fern-covered woods of Russian Gulch State Park.

We found a rare parking spot and wandered Main Street before finally settling on a Japanese spot called Off the Hook.

Geocache at Rose Memorial Park

This geocache brought us to a part of the cemetery that the creator felt probably doesn’t get a lot of visitors. So after finding it, of course we had to go pay our respects and say hello to everyone.

I try to say as many of their names out loud as I can. When do you think the last time it was said was? You know that one saying…

Noyo Headlands Park, the home of “Glass Beach”

And a tiny part of the network managed by the California Coastal National Monument (which protects the land) and the California Marine Protected Area (which protects the water).

It felt so familiar here, yet so different. The coastline has changed and eroded so much since the last time we saw it.

I was *psyched* and happily parked my butt on the beach to start treasure hunting.

We got lucky and the tide was super low, so we also had good opportunities to spot starfish, anemones, and other squishy things in the tide pools.

There were a bunch of other people here with us, but nothing that was overly obnoxious or imposing. Mostly, people were just nerding out like we were over the glass pieces and the cool creatures.

Seals!

There’s something to be said with putzing around in an area with no timeline and the ability to just chill and soak it all in before having to run off to do the next thing.

We tried to make friends with the ravens, but they weren’t having it. The squirrels and marmots we were way more interested (until they found out we didn’t have food, haha).

When we left here with our handful of tiny seaglass beans, we discovered that some of them were UV-reactive uranium glass.

Fun fact: We collect uranium and other types of antique glass from the Great Depression era.

So yeah… needless to say, we were buzzing and this got the gears turning.

Visit #2: Thursday, September 11

After what felt like spending a bazillion days exploring every nook and cranny of the Redwood National & State Parks, it was time to wind down and head south back toward San Francisco.

Super 8: Home sweet home

We took refuge in Fort Bragg on the way, finally reaching our digs at Super 8 around 8PM. We grabbed a bite to eat at the pizza place that was literally five steps from the front door and got ourselves together to visit Glass Beach again, but this time in pitch black darkness and with some tools.

Nighttime @ Glass Beach

I was surprised that we were the only people in the parking lot, there’s no way we’re the only people with this idea. We must’ve looked really silly heading down onto the dark beach with head lamps and flash lights.

Alone except for the little sneaky crabs and endless tiny flies, that is.

There’s no place like [Egghead’s]

The next morning, we were up bright and early to head back to Main Street in Fort Bragg to get breakfast at Egghead’s before traveling a few more hours to San Francisco.