North Beach Park
Port Townsend, WA
North Beach Park is the trailhead for one of the more unusual walks on this stretch of coast, a mixed sand and rock shoreline that leads, at low to mid tide only, to Glass Beach below McCurdy Point. The point was a mid-twentieth-century dump site, and decades of tumbling in the surf turned the old glass into sea glass worth hunting for.
Genuinely distinctive, sea glass hunting and a real tidal walk with history behind it, free and memorable, though it takes tide planning that keeps it from being a casual drop-in beach.
How we score beachesThere's no way down to Glass Beach from above; the bluff is a hundred feet high. You have to walk the shore from North Beach Park, and only when the tide allows it, so check tide tables before setting out.
Free county park parking at 5880 Kuhn St, limited spaces.
The walk to Glass Beach is roughly 5.7 miles round trip along the shore, uneven and tide-dependent, not suited to strollers or limited mobility.
Any season works if the tide cooperates. Bald eagles and seals are commonly spotted along the way.
This isn't one entrance, it's a stretch with a few. Here's where locals actually meet up.
North Beach Park
The trailhead and beach access off Kuhn Street, the starting point for the walk to Glass Beach.
Get directions →Glass Beach
The sea glass beach below McCurdy Point, reached only by walking the shore at low to mid tide.
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