Close-up view of the colored glass beads mixed in the sand at Glass Beach near Fort Bragg, CA. The photographer noted, “Glass Beach is not an official park or attraction – there are no signs pointing the way to the shoreline.” He added, “In addition to the polished glass, Glass Beach provides an excellent point of access to the rocky northern California shoreline, with the furious waves crashing against the craggy outcrops.” Photo #1 by Matthew High
Starting around 1949, the people of Fort Bragg used the area around this beach was a public dump. By 1967, authorities realized what a huge mistake that had been and planned another dump site away from the ocean. For the next 30 years, Mother Nature worked on the garbage, reclaiming it, rounding the sharp edges of glass and depositing the glass pebbles onto Glass Beach. Photo #2 by clr_flickr
Awesome Wave at Fort Bragg, CA. Photo #3 by Isolino Ferreira
The state parks department took over the 38-acre site in 2002, so that this beach of sea glass is now part of MacKerricher State Park. Photo #4 by Megan
Landscape shot of the coast near Glass Beach, Fort Bragg. Photo #5 by Frank Kovalchek
“Good dog Cali” at Glass Beach. Photo #6 by Hotash
The Glass beach in Fort Bragg, California. Photo #7 by Jef Poskanzer
Although the state park brochure states that it’s illegal “to remove or harm plants, animals or other natural features” from Glass Beach, some folks must figure the glass pebbles are not actually a “natural” byproduct and hunt for pretty pieces as treasure. Photo #8 by Jef Poskanzer
The coastline is wild and beautiful, with the environment flourishing with the healing power of nature at MacKerricher State Park, CA. Photo #9 by Josh Templet
“Born to be wild,” the photographer wrote. It’s hard to believe people used to dump all manner of household refuse, even old cars here. Photo #10 by Josh Templet
Sea Bat Stars are but one creature that make their homes in this changed environment. There are also crabs, mollusks, and many aquatic plants thriving in the area. Photo #11 by Mike Baird
Mendocino coast – Fort Bragg. Photo #12 by clr_flickr
View from a sea cave at Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. Photo #13 by Megan
There are several tidal pools for scavengers to stomp around on at Glass Beach. Photo #14 by Tom Hilton
The Ten Mile Haul Road runs north of Fort Bragg, though MacKerricher State Park. Photo #15 by J.smith
Yellow poppies, wildflowers on the California coast, north of Fort Bragg, and interesting rock formations offshore in the Pacific Ocean. Photo #16 by Wonderlane
Mendocino Coast ‘Botanical Gardens’ and ruggedly beautiful coastline at Fort Bragg, CA. Photo #17 by Frank Fujimoto
In the distance from Glass Beach, seagulls wheel and breakers crash on rocks. Photo #18 by clr_flickr
Rounded glass and rocky pebbles on Glass Beach. Visitors to the area say that every year there is a little less glass since so many people pocket the pretty pieces. Photo #19 by mamojo
MacKerricher State Park gulls. Photo #20 by chanzi
The entire cove is coated like this at Fort Bragg’s Glass Beach. Photo #21 by Jef Poskanzer
MacKerricher State Park – cormorants, and a pelican too. Photo #22 by Mike Carroll
Glass Beach is a fascinating place. Photo #23 by Zara Evens
Golden Sunset taken at the beach just north of MacKerricher State Park, north of Fort Bragg. Photo #24 by Images by John ‘K’
Wonder how many thousands upon thousands of old glass bottles Mother Nature reclaimed and rounded off to create Glass Beach? Photo #25 by Þorgerður Olafsdottir
Glass Beach at sunset. Photo #26 by Hotash
Environmental healing power of nature, taking ‘trash’ and converting it into a beautiful Glass Beach. Photo #27 by jawshouamoua
Dogs having fun on the glass. Photo #28 by Megan
Looking out over Glass Beach. Photo #29 by Gone-Walkabout
Not many people will experience this sort of “sand,” but there are supposed to be similar such garbage-to-beaches in Benicia, California, Guantanamo and Hanapepe, Hawaii. Photo #30 by Adam Hally
Glass in the Sunlight. Photo #31 by Megan
The photographer wrote, “Glass Beach has a remarkable density of polished sea glass due to a history of dumping garbage into the sea in northern Fort Bragg. Way to go, Fort Bragg. Though not strictly natural, I must say this is some really interesting and beautiful sand.” Photo #32 by Mouser Williams
That’s a fairly huge haul of red glass from the unique beach. 😉 Photo #33 by Aaron Spielman
People picking through shiny treasures. Photo #34 by Yoav Lerman
Flowers with Glass Beach in the background. Photo #35 by entitee
Nature wins with the last laugh at this beach. Photo #36 by Brendan Riley
Close-up of the glass beads mixed in the gravel. Photo #37 by Matthew High
Treasures. Photo #38 by Megan
[…] source: http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/09/nature-laughs-last-at-glass-beach-38-pics/SHARE: […]
[…] Article source: http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/09/nature-laughs-last-at-glass-beach-38-pics/ […]
this is an awsome website! thank you for sharing it and I would recommend this to any teacher or group that needs positive pics/info on any kind of environment theme. this would really be a great discussion starter for kids on being responsible about cleaning things properly (maybe even their rooms!).
I enjoyed your website but have a few comments to add so if anyone else visits Ft Bragg, they are fully aware of what can happen….My husband is a wildlife/nature photographer so we visited Glass Beach at Ft Bragg while traveling the entire Cali coastline thinking what a great beach for his nature shots and how cool and different as we have nothing like this in Florida. Ironically after picking up several seal teeth and some sea glass to arrange on top of the rocks for pictures, some man (not an official guy of any sort, but apparently somebody who thought he had power) started screaming, and I mean screaming, at us that we weren’t allowed to take anything from the beach. We told him we weren’t taking anything that we were just taking pictures—(obviously because my husband has four huge cameras with enormous lenses that we jokingly call the “Hubble”). The man then charged at my husband (who is 6’4″ with a 21″ neck and an ex-hockey player and not scared to defend us)like we were doing something wrong as my husband took pictures of the glass, teeth, beach, seals, etc. We never bagged, pocketed, or used buckets like the 100’s of other people were. For some reason he targeted us. He never touched us, but got within inches of my husbands face and mine trying to block where we were walking. He kept saying you damn thieves taking our beach and nothing will be left…I wanted to say dude, its trash and we aren’t taking it but my husband said don’t engage this guy. We tried to ignore him. We finally left after this man followed us around for 10 minutes. He followed us to our rental car and wrote down the plate number and called the cops on us as we left. We were pulled over moments later and SEARCHED thoroughly, including all camera bags and luggage and our bodies and the entire vehicle on the side of the road like we were smuggling drugs or something. This was the worst day of our vacation. No apologies when they found NOTHING! We asked them why they stopped us when they are 100’s of people with 5 gallon buckets and ziplocs etc down at the beach. We also showed the officer pictures and video I took of the man harassing us, cursing at me, and following us around. Nothing. He shrugged his shoulders. We left that afternoon even though a hotel room in town was paid for. I will NEVER, EVER visit that town again who has sea glass stores on every corner selling the crap from the beach that apparently is illegal to take. Your story is very nice and you have beautiful pictures, but Ft Bragg is a flipping joke. The people (maybe not all of them) should be ashamed of how they treat tourists so only the locals can collect. Even your pics show people collecting… sorry, not trying to be negative on your story but people should know.
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wow awesome beaches 🙂
Gorgeous! Going to see for myself this weekend. But Photo #33? You’re joking, right? Beautiful piece of Turkish Towel seaweed, regardless. 🙂
so amazing to see this tipe o nature wonder i would like to visit california one day wich 0other places do you know like this can u tell me this wolrd is so small and so amazing but we dont tace care of him we only have this home if destroys we can go anywhere
You take incredible pictures! Wow!!
Sometimes it’s magic with what grace nature tries to remedy the acts of human…
Awesome pictures!:-)
[…] out these photos of the California coast and take a look at how Mother Nature has reclaimed an area in a national park. Â I guess this used to be a favorite […]
[…] Glass Beach — Hanapepe, Kauai. The photographer noted, “A beach in the industrial section of Hanapepe, Kauai called ‘Glass Beach’ due to tons of smooth glass pebbles on the beach.” Photo #41 by Travis.Thurston […]
I definitely want to visit. But I won’t take the glass! Such a shame that this beach’s beauty will be stolen piece by piece.
“The beach’s beauty will be stolen piece by piece.” It is not a crime to clean-up garbage. And what you would be doing when picking up the broken pieces of glass bottles is cleaning up garbage (glass bottles) that people dumped into the water. It would be very easy to restore this beach, bring your glass bottles and break them in the water, for that is how this beach was made!
“…every year there is a little less glass since so many people pocket the pretty pieces.” Much more likely the waves are grinding the glass into smaller pieces.
[…] Glass Beach, California: Instead of sand, this beach has glass that has been shaped by nature over the […]
[…] Okkur dreymir um að fá að dýfa tánum í hlýjan sjóinn, spjalla við selina sem þarna búa og stinga höndunum á kaf í glersteinabreiðuna. Þangað til sá draumur rætist getum við hlýjað okkur við það stórkostlega myndasafn sem tekið hefur verið saman hér: Nature Laughs Last at Glass Beach […]
[…] Varying points of view of Glass Beach, CA. There are many more stunning photos of this particular beach on the blog post, “Nature Laughs Last at Glass Beach“. […]
There is a natural glass beach in New Zealand which has marble sized glass pebbles of all different colors created by a volcano I think. It is now classed as a protected beach and you aren’t allowed to take them home. This should happen here too don’t you think?
Beautiful job, Mother Nature! Gorgeous work spreading the word on re-using the old to make beautiful the new! Absolutely stunning glass beach!