Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, California.
A beach made of glass! For real - all of that is glass and rocks - and shells and seaweed and the usual stuff you see on a beach.
You see, not so long ago people thought it was ok to place dump sites at the ocean. Just dump your trash at the shore and the ocean will wash it away. It was more common than you might think.
This was a dump site as late as 1959.
Everything was dumped in this site - cars, bottles, pottery, etc. The interesting thing about this area is that the position of the rocks along the coastline prevented anything from being washed out to the sea. It just churned up in the tide and was deposited back on the shore.
According to the information I read at the Glass Beach Museum the white (not clear) glass was milk glass - usually dinnerware. Green was bottles. Clear (frosted) was bottles and dinnerware. Red and orange were car tail lights. Brown were bottles. Lavender were actually clear leaded glass exposed to sunlight.
Mostly there are only tiny bits of glass left on the beach now. Locals and visitors have taken away most of the larger pieces (to make into jewelry or to otherwise sell), Because so much glass has been carted off by people the Museum sells "seed glass" for $5/bag. It's recycled glass that has been tumbled enough to knock off the sharp edges. The idea is to throw this into the surf so that it will get tumbled and polished and wash back up onto the beach to "preserve" the Glass Beach.
During my wanderings on the beach I was impress by the tenacity of the plant life. Look at these plants that are growing on the side of a rock. There's no "soil" there. Do the roots of the plant get nourishment from the rock? It must, since there's nothing else there to feed it.
Something I never expected to see at the beach - squirrels. I was actually watching mother seals teaching their pups to swim when this squirrel comes within a foot of me. They must be used to being fed by people. When I didn't offer it any food it went back into the grass to eat the tops of the flowers. It wasn't the least bit afraid of me.
I don't think these crabs were too happy with the bright light that was illuminating their little hidey hole. There were a great many crabs on the beach if one had the patience to sit by tide pools or need crevices and be very still until they came out.
