Glass Beach
Fort Bragg, CA
Glass Beach earned its name from decades of sea glass, the polished remains of an old dump site the ocean has spent generations smoothing into pebbles. It's one of the more unusual beaches on the whole California coast, small and rocky rather than a swim spot, but a genuine draw for anyone who's never seen a beach made this way.
A genuinely unusual, one of a kind beach worth seeing once, though it's small and rocky rather than a place to spend a whole day.
How we score beachesLeave the glass where you find it, removing it is both discouraged and slowly emptying the beach of the exact thing that makes it worth visiting.
Free parking is available; the CCC lists a lot here but doesn't specify its size.
A blufftop path and trail lead down to the beach.
Leashed dogs are allowed at Glass Beach via the steep access trail down from the bluff.
Summer mornings run foggy before clearing, typical of the Mendocino coast, with water staying cold year round.
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