Beach made of broken glass. Glass Beach is a new wonder of the world. Glass Beach in hot California

There are so many unusual beaches on the planet that it is simply impossible to choose the most interesting one. Xinjiang in China, Vik in Iceland, on Hawaiian Islands. It’s impossible to list them all. California has its own unique Glass Beach, the “sand” of which shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow and glistens in the sun. What kind of miracle is this?

Glass Beach in hot California

One of the unique wonders of nature, in the creation of which man had a hand, appeared on the coast Pacific Ocean, in the city of Fort Bragg. This is probably the only place on Earth where garbage has turned into a popular tourist attraction in the United States.

McKerricher Park is now famous far beyond its borders. The glass pebble beach attracts every year great amount tourists. Despite the ban, many are trying to steal away a piece of Glass Beach as a souvenir. Indeed, this place is unique.

How did the glass beach come about?

At the beginning of the 20th century, a public landfill appeared on the coast. Once upon a time, people did not think that such actions could harm nature. Bottles, light bulbs, old cars, broken furniture, and household waste gradually accumulated on the ocean shore.

Only after 60 years did the authorities finally understand that if this outrage was not stopped, it could erupt ecological catastrophy in a particular area. The landfill was closed. Large garbage was removed further from the coast, but small waste, plastic, and tons of glass were left in the same place.

After several decades, the former landfill was unrecognizable. Nature itself has slowly dealt with the traces of human activity. Ocean waters cleared the beach and sharpened every piece of glass. The result was multi-colored pebbles of various sizes.

Now billions of pieces of glass litter the entire coastline. McKerricher Park purchased this territory and organized protection. Park staff cleared the glass-covered beach. For a small fee, anyone can walk along the bright beach, which in sunny weather simply glows with colorful lights.

Scientists say that the decomposition period of glass is from 500 to 1000 years. In a thousand years, this place will be ordinary sand. In the meantime, tourists can admire the fantastic beauty of Glass Beach.

Glass beach in California photo

In the summer heat, each of us dreams of cooling off in sea water, and in the winter cold - basking in the rays of the gentle sun. Therefore, both in winter and summer, many people want to be on the beach. Some imagine a coast with soft sand, others - pebbly, and others - a rocky, wild corner of nature. But it’s unlikely that anyone will see a glass beach in their dreams. And in California it really exists! Unusual place is located in the small town of Fort Bragg.

It all started in the forties of the twentieth century. Then they started dumping garbage from all over the city onto the territory of the current beach. As a result, a huge public dump was formed. There was everything here: from household rubbish to written-off cars. Over time, giant mountains of garbage, heaps of broken glass, and piles of plastic waste have reached critical sizes. They simply began to burn them. This continued for more than twenty years, until in 1967 the city authorities, having discovered threatening the earth and water, did not decide to close the city landfill. Programs were developed aimed at restoring the local nature, and the area was finally cleared of bulky debris. But small broken glass remained, and here nature took care of itself.

The sea surf painstakingly sharpened every sharp piece of glass and turned the piles of glass into myriads of colored smooth pebbles of various sizes and shapes. The ocean has done a truly magnificent job: it has eliminated the disgrace caused by people on its shores, and turned the landfill into a unique, clean sea coast. This is how the glass beach in California appeared. The photographs of this place are simply mesmerizing - the shore in the sun shines with all the colors and shades of the rainbow. It's incredibly beautiful!

Local residents quickly took a liking to the area. That's what they called it - Glass Beach. In California, the town of Fort Bragg is very popular - residents from all over the state come here for vacation. Both tourists from other parts of the United States and foreign travelers are eager to visit the amazing shore. Everyone who was lucky enough to visit Glass Beach in California wanted to take home at least one colored pebble as a souvenir. The polished pieces of glass quickly began to be stolen by tourists, and local craftsmen got the hang of making beautiful bracelets and necklaces from them.

In 2002, Glass Beach (USA) was purchased by McKerricher National Park and turned into an inimitable exotic area open to the public. Since then it has been prohibited to take unusual stones from here, but this prohibition is often violated, because every visitor wants to take a beautiful piece of glass as a souvenir. Not only people, but also crabs living in coastal waters do not want to obey the orders of the authorities. They take great pleasure in using colorful building materials to build their homes.

What a story! The glass beach in California is a real miracle of nature, a beauty created from garbage that pleases the eye and takes you to the world of childhood, to the time of fairy-tale dreams, when we all believed that precious gems could be found among ordinary ones!

Glass Beach is in MacKerricher State Park near Fort Bragg, California State, . The beach got its name due to the fact that it is covered with many glass pebbles, it is a landmark of the city.

Local residents, considering this place a dump, threw garbage there - household waste, old household appliances, cars, glass. In 1967, authorities closed the beach and carried out cleanup work several times. Uncollected small fragments of glass were polished by the waves and gradually the entire shore was strewn with thousands of multi-colored pieces of glass. The North Coast Water Quality Board has banned dumping waste in this area.

Over the course of several decades, nature itself dealt with the landfill: not a trace remained of the former garbage mountains. The sea waves cleared the beach and ground every piece of glass on the coast. As a result, the shape of the glass pebbles is no different from the pebbles we are used to, and now billions of pieces of glass litter the entire coastline, which is called Glass Beach.

In 2002, McCarricher Park acquired the Glass Coast. It has been cleaned up and opened to tourists, who can admire it for a nominal fee. amazing place. Crowds of tourists flocked to see this amazing beach. There are even craftsmen who make all sorts of souvenirs from these smooth pieces of glass, which are well bought by tourists who come to see this miracle of human industrial intervention in the affairs of nature. Despite the official ban, many tourists try to take some glass pebbles as a souvenir of Glass Beach.

According to various sources, glass decomposes from 500 to 1000 years, that is, in a maximum of a thousand years the incredible Glass Beach will turn into an ordinary sandy beach. But now this is one of the most beautiful places and the first unique beach, composed of man and nature.

This one is amazing glass beach in national park McCarriher in California created by people together with nature! Strong waves worked hard to create such beauty from the glass fragments of the former landfill - the entire beach is covered with “precious gems” that shimmer with all sorts of colors in the sun.

Where is the glass beach

Glass Beach located in McCarriher National Park(MacKerricher State Park) near the city of Fort Bragg in California, USA. For your convenience, we have marked the glass beach on the map below. How to get to the glass beach at the end of the article.

History of the formation of the glass beach

The history of the formation of the glass beach really deserves special attention, since it is a real miracle that nature does with the consumer attitude of mankind! There was once a city dump here And local residents They brought all sorts of rubbish here. In 1967, local authorities took up the task of cleaning up the polluted beach and carried out a series of cleanup works. Of course, it was not possible to clean everything “cleanly” and a lot of broken glass remained on the shore, which was subject to grinding by the waves, and after just 10 years the former landfill became a local landmark and a popular place that tourists began to add to their itinerary.

Since 2002, the territory of the former landfill came under the jurisdiction of McCreacher National Park. People removed the garbage that was not processed by nature themselves, which made the beach even more attractive.

Description of the glass beach

The glass beach itself is not big size. The beach is protected on all sides by rocks, which you will have to climb in order to set your feet on this stunning beach, which is dotted with glass of different colors: green, white, red, blue, bright blue. IN rock strong waves over time knocked out the grottoes and lintels, which add a special mystery to the place.

The most beautiful pieces of glass are located directly near the ocean. When the pieces of glass get wet, they become brighter, while dry pieces of glass are somewhat cloudy.

Photos of the glass beach:

Glass Beach is visited by about a thousand tourists in the summer who, of course, want to take home a few glass souvenirs as a souvenir. In this regard, the amount of glass on the beach is becoming less and less every year. At the moment, a program has been developed to fill the beach with treated glass, but local authorities do not accept it due to its high cost. Therefore, hurry up to visit this amazing place before careless tourists “stole the entire beach”!

How to get to glass beach

You can walk to the glass beach(200 meters), going down the steep bank from the intersection of W Elm St and Glass Beach Drive. There is convenient parking where you can leave your vehicle, which is very convenient.

Literally every hour the media tells us the same thing: “Do not destroy the beauty of nature with your behavior. Do not leave behind dirt in forests, on sea coasts, on mountain slopes. Don't harm yourself or others. The beauty of nature was not created by people, and no one has the right to “make their own ridiculous adjustments,” which often only harm it.”

But my mother told everyone from childhood: “Don’t scatter garbage! Everyone throws a match, and it turns out to be a garbage dump.” We all try to adhere to this golden rule. After all, we will suffer from our own “negligent” attitude.

But you know, there is one place where it was garbage that created beauty. Yes, yes, that's trash. Although it sounds somehow unusual and strange, doesn’t it? Trash and beauty. But in California there is one beach, the beauty of which has increased thanks to broken glass.

Where is the glass beach

Sea, sun, beach... All of this gives us approximately the same sensations: fresh sea air, light breeze, scorching sun, and, of course, warm sand.

But one place will instantly destroy our stereotypes. Unusual, amazing, glass beach!

Interested? Then let's quickly go to California and look at this unique glass beach.

So, north of the town of Fort Bragg in McKerricher Park there is a marvelous Californian glass beach.

The beach is unique “for its interesting sand.” Glass sand.

Don't be alarmed. There are no sharp pieces of glass that could hurt you. Each piece of glass is carefully polished by the waters of a real jeweler - the ocean.

The beach is simply strewn with glass pebbles of different sizes, shapes, and colors. It seems as if the painter, walking along the beach, simply splashed paint along the road. Interesting and strange at the same time.

The history of the glass beach. Who tried: nature or man

Who do you think “tried harder” to make the California glass beach become a picture from a book - a rainbow shore?

We think that in order to accurately answer this question, it is worth looking “deeper” - at the history of the beach.

And it was all like this... Back in the first half of the twentieth century, a large public landfill appeared on this coast. Residents easily disposed of their trash by bringing all their trash here to the California beach.

Gradually, the mountains of garbage increased; it seemed that this area was “already hopeless.”

But in the early sixties, city authorities banned throwing garbage here.

After some time, the California coast began to be cleared of the rubbish that had accumulated over twenty years! Of course, bulky old televisions, cars, and all kinds of equipment were taken out immediately! It would seem that after much work the beach was cleared! But... there were broken glasses left there, which no one took as a problem and as such pollution!

And at that moment the ocean decided to help the “inattentive people.” The ocean waters carefully and “quietly” smoothed out the sharp ends of the broken glass. And just six months later, the sharp fragments turned into neat multi-colored pebbles.

This is how the glass beach of California appeared in an amazing way.

So who is the “culprit” of this beauty? It seems to us that both people and the sea contributed equally. If people had not scattered broken glass here, then the sea would have nothing to turn into “colorful pebbles.” Well, if the sea had not polished the glass in such a miraculous way, then the beach would probably have to be closed. In a word, both tried equally.

Relaxing on the beach at McKerricher Park

Since 2002, the Californian glass beach has become part of McKerricher National Park and, of course, a landmark and “patrimony of humanity.”

Now tourists from all over the world come to California to look at the marvelous glass beach in the National Park in the amazing US state.

We can say with confidence that a holiday on this beach is truly unique and certainly memorable. There is no sand here, from which castles and palaces can easily be built.

Sitting on such a bank, it seems that you are looking at the world through a kaleidoscope, in which everything shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow.

Have you already wanted to go to a wonderful beach in California? Lie down on the “glass rainbow of stones” and take a deep breath of clean sea air.

After our next trip, thoughts involuntarily come to mind about why they believe that there are only seven Wonders of the World? After all, any place carries within itself something fabulous, something magical, something wonderful. Every amazing and unusual corner can be confidently called a Wonder of the World.

But let's still remember that everything is natural in the world! When leaving or scattering trash, remember that things may not always turn out the way they do for California residents. It’s not for nothing that the sages said: “The evil emitted by you will certainly return to you.” And this statement concerns not only relations in society, but also attitudes towards nature. And if we do not treat nature with care, we do not appreciate its beauty, then the seas, forests, mountains will simply begin to “take revenge”, which, of course, ends in tears.

So treat everything that surrounds you with awe and travel the world with us.

Glass Beach in McKerricher Park in California on the map

A wonderful video that makes the glass beach a reality. Agree that after watching you want to go to McKerricher.