Visiting the glass beach at Fort Bragg
Coastal views along the shoreline
Today, let’s go visit another beautiful area up in Mendocino county called the Glass beach at Fort Bragg. This coastal area and beach is filled with glass, pottery and other remains polished smooth by the rough surf pounding into the beaches. What you will find at Glass beach are the leftovers from an early dump in the early 20th century when locals threw glasses, appliances and rubbish down the cliffs into the beaches of the ‘local dump’ and set fires to cut the trash pile. Less than a 20 minute drive from Mendocino town, you’ll enjoy visiting this beach and state park to explore in more detail.
Checking out Fort Bragg and the coastline
Tree stumps decaying at the beach
The dumping was finally stopped in 1967, environmental cleanups ensued to correct the damage. The rough surf also helped in churning out the garbage and crumbling the remains and glassware into small polished bits. Later the private owner worked to transfer ownership to the California Coastal Conservancy and waste management cleanup to make the beach safe again for public use and access. What you see again today is a newly revitalized beach cleaned and opened for the public to enjoy and pick up some ‘treasures’.
Along the coastline
Rough surf at glass beach
The town of Fort Bragg is a sweet and easy walk around town with its tourist shops of local art galleries and cafes mixed in with general sundry shops. Considering this town is located along the remote Northern California coastline, it’s a surprise to find so many art galleries supported local crafts and artisans, tourist shops, gourmet stores and cafes to support tourism and the local economy. It’s a fun a walk around the ‘block’ (the two main parallel streets of the town) to check out all the cool and interesting shops in town and try some local specialty or dessert. Make sure to visit the town, if you decide to look for some polished glass and treasures at the glass beach in Fort Bragg.
An art gallery in Fort Bragg
Decaying trees at the beach
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Beautiful photography! Great blog……
Enjoyed the photos of Glass Beach. I love looking at images of beautiful scenery in other regions. Thanks for visiting and letting me know about Travel photo Mondays. I’ve linked up!
Aloha Diane,
Thanks for connecting and also for linking up for Travel Photo MOndays
Hi Noel, I haven’t linked up for a few weeks because I haven’t had anything travel-related until now. Your party has really grown – congratulations! Your photos are beautiful as always. Take care – Dawn
Hey you mentioned having me participate in this… Can you provide a brief tutorial on what exactly I have to do? Where do I sign up? I’ve never participated in anything like this before, but it looks fun!
Hi Colleen thanks for asking, you can link your current post every Monday with the add your link button below all the other posts and just place your link and caption the tool. Make sure you do add the Travel Photo Discovery URL on your post so your readers can see the link to check out the other posts with some blurb you can mention about the carnival, and please also visit other blogs, its a friendly bunch 🙂
We enjoyed visiting the glass beach recently, but I think all the glass has been picked up. There were at least 20 people scouring the beach area and picking any thing they could find. I saw only a few clear colored bits of glass. Last year my daughter and family saw lots of brown colored glass, do you think the tide washes the glass in and out at will?
I hope you enjoy my link of the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse that’s five miles from Fort Bragg. I really enjoyed you post as a new member of this facebook group.
I’m glad they cleaned up the beach and all that area. Lovely photographs! Good idea for mondays 🙂 It’s nice to see lovely photos on mondays! Great blog of course too.
Thanks for connecting, come and link up with us with your recent posts 🙂
Gosh, I haven’t been up to Fort Bragg is such a long time. I didn’t know this history about Glass Beach. Interesting! Great pics, as always.
Isn’t interesting such a beautiful place was originally a dump, now look how gorgeous it is and a fun place to look for polished treasure…thanks for linking up Cathy
I have heard of Glass Beach and Ft Bragg but never realized how scenic it is. It was a shame this area was once a dumping ground. What a beautiful coastline! Loved how you captured all the driftwood and decaying wood.
It’s been revitalized and brought back to original condition and a place for people to look for gorgeous polished glass pieces
Great beach shots. Love the close up detail on the trees. Was there any glass remaining or have the beach scavengers collected it all?
The whole beach is filled with polished glass, for some reason, I could not find the images of the glass that I had collected…it’s a fun place to look for stuff
Kudos to conservancy and revitalization effort, such beautiful beach deserves to be enjoyed by the public. I enjoyed the stunning, dramatic photos. The image of the decaying wood almost looks real.
It is one of my favorite beaches for scavenging and finding some cool polished stuff like glass and ceramics, thanks for connecting
Lovely photos. Looks like a great place to go exploring.
wonderful wild and windy coast- I would love to be walking there
I like the photo with decaying trees…
Simply Awesome Images…
Love the driftwood.
My husband did basic training for the USMC at Fort Bragg. I don’t think he has fond memories of the beach. I don’t think he ever saw the beach!
Beautiful shots of the place. The rocky beach looks great.
Noel, such a beautiful coastline. The prettiest around, I think..Happy Weekend..Judy
Lovely pictures of a new-to-me place~