Glass Beach is one of the most unusual beaches on the California coast, its gravels threaded with smooth, sea-worn fragments of old glass in greens, browns, and the rare cobalt blue. The glass comes from decades of waste dumping on the headlands above — a practice ended in 1967 — and the surf has spent sixty-odd years polishing the shards into the rounded, frosted jewels that visitors now pick their way through.
The beach sits north of town, adjacent to MacKerricher State Park. It is not a swimming beach — the surf is heavy and the rocks are uneven — but as a place to walk and look, it is genuinely strange and beautiful. Note that picking up glass is technically not permitted (it's part of the state park), which is a regulation largely honoured in the breach. The best fragments tend to lie closest to the water's edge at low tide. There is a small parking area and a trail along the bluffs above.