Glass Beach, California | Squat the Planet

Glass Beach, California

outskirts

I ain't getting any younger.
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http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2b12Gc/www.unfinishedman.com/glass-beach-dump-youll-want-visit/?fb_action_ids=386747481375940&fb_action_types=stumbleupon%3Adiscover&fb_source=other_multiline


Glass Beach – The Dump You’ll Want to Visit

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by GINA on SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
ART & PHOTOGRAPHY,TRAVEL
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Before you say anything about the content of this article, I hate people who litter. I’ll judge you if I think you’re too lazy to recycle. I hate pollution and the death of our fragile ecosystems and all the rest. But- with that disclaimer out of the way- Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, California is the incredible result of human wastefulness and the resilience of nature. I’ve been trolling around for lesser
known landscapes to road trip to and explore, and stumbled across this chunk of multicoloured west coast paradise. These days, Glass Beach is a protected part of MacKerricher State Park, but in 1949, it was the site of an unrestricted dump. For 18 years, people drove out to the scenic expanse of ocean cliffs, marveled at the beauty of the natural world and the majesty of the depths, and then threw all their shit in.​

Glass Beach, California – The Dump You’ll Want to Visit

Eventually, California realized that dumping automobiles, appliances, toxic substances and razor sharp shards of glass into the water was probably a bad idea, and looked elsewhere for a dumping site. The beaches under the cliffs lay polluted, cluttered and ruined, and were basically treated as a forgotten ‘mistake.’ Despite our obviously brilliant handling of the situation, Mother Earth had a few tricks up her sleeve, and spent the next 30 years tumbling away the jagged edges of our insensitivity and leaving behind brilliant pebbles of polished glass. As the shores grew into glimmering beaches, the state realized that people were visiting to collect the glass and to see the rainbow sands reflecting the sun, and quickly annexed it into a national park. The result? We finished up what nature graciously started, spent a few years cleaning up rusting metal hulks and all sorts of wonderfully dangerous debris (nothing says sandcastle fun like getting tetanus from a lead-filled 50s throwback), and Glass Beach is now a protected treasure that I’m dying to visit. While I can only imagine the sight of the colours of translucent glass turning in the sun and turbulent surf, I’m thinking I might just keep my shoes on.​
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Tagged as: glass beach, MacKerricher State Park
 

Matt Derrick

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Yep. Definitely on my list now.
 

Tude

Sometimes traveler is traveling.
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Ahh, and so I wondered where the heck all these internet companies are getting the glass to make it with - and I saw Michigan beach glass, Cape Cod Sea glass ---- and another site called West Coast Sea glass - so obviously there's glass all over the place. But that beach above is pretty spectacular looking!
 

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