Glass Beach at Fort Bragg

Fort Bragg, CA, not to be confused with Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is a small beach town about 3 1/2 hours north of San Francisco. While most call it Fort Bragg, officially it is the City of Fort Bragg, and it is a cute little town of about 7,000 people.

“Fort Bragg is a tourist destination because of its picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean. Among its notable points of interest are Glass Beach and the California Western Railroad (popularly known as the “Skunk Train”).” – Wikipedia

We were very happy to be up here because it was still very cool here – highs were around 59f (15c) – in fact, I’m wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. Sigh, wishing we were still there instead of sitting in a heat wave in another state. While we were there is was quite foggy. We were there in July 2018 and it was clear, so I’ve included a picture from that trip.

As I mentioned in the beginning, one of the more notable attractions is Glass Beach. It is a rugged beach (as you can see from the pictures above), “named from a time when it was abundant with sea glass created from years of dumping garbage into an area of coastline near the northern part of the town.” – wikipedia

Below is a picture I took of the beach in 2018. Most of the glass pieces are quite small but still plentiful.

Walking towards the beach from the parking lot you pass through a large field of wild flowers, which is home to many small furry critters. Yeah, I don’t really know what they are so anything small and furry gets called “furry critter” by us.

The furry critters around here are so used to people they can’t be bothered to moved when someone comes near them.

Joel found out there is a Sea Glass Museum in town, so, of course we had to check it out.

“What appears to be a kitschy sea glass gift shop from the entryway is actually home to the International Sea Glass Museum founded in 2009 by retired sea captain Cass Forrington. …The three-room museum holds thousands of rare and unusual sea glass pieces in every color, shape, and size. A display organized by color explains the origin of each sea glass color…” – Atlas Obscura 

While in Fort Bragg we stayed at the Pomo RV Park and Campground. It was by far one of the nicest, and the people working here were really friendly. All sites were really large and private. The only thing that we still can’t get used to is the lack of technology at campgrounds. In order to reserve a site at this campground I had to send them a check (you remember those things, right?) and they (snail) mailed me back my confirmation. When we got to the campground we were told they only accept cash or check. And in the office there was a huge book where they kept track of all reservations. So different from our days of reserving hotel rooms through Marriott, or Hilton, or really anywhere else.

After Glass Beach we stopped by Overtime Brewing to grab a bite to eat and sample some of their beers – it was very tasty.

Then, on our way back to our RV we stopped in a little strip mall so Joel could pick up some fluid for the jeep, and that is when I discovered something that made me so happy…A YARN SHOP!!!!

For those who don’t know, I crochet. My grandmother taught me when I was little, I dabbled a bit in college, and in the past 10 years or so I picked it up again and have come to love it. I often crochet while Joel drives – it helps to relax me (I’m not a very good passenger 🤷). So, I walked into this store, met some very nice women knitting and crocheting in there, and proceeded to touch just about EVERY. SINGLE. SKEIN. OF YARN!!

A short drive north of Fort Bragg, about 20 minutes, we pulled off the highway to take a quick break. We discovered we had stumbled onto a trail leading us out to Bruhel Point, one of many scenic overlooks along this highway. It was foggy on the day we were there but still beautiful.

As much as we enjoyed the cool weather and the coast, we still have many friends and family to see in the next few months, so we kept moving north.