Treasure From Trash: Sea Glass Beach

There was a second reason I wanted to go to Port Townsend, WA besides it was someplace new to visit.  As I’d said earlier, I keep files of places I want to visit. 

One of those files was labeled:  “Glass Beaches”.  

And one of those glass beaches was at Port Townsend.

 

We arrived a full day before Himself had to be in class.  After checking the tide tables, we picked the best time to start our hike down the beach.  I wanted maximum time for glass hunting!  

The guide I had called it a “short” hike.   

They lied.  

Or at least, in my humble opinion, 3 to 4 miles on a sandy, rocky beach is not short.  It’s not long, but it is not “short” either.  

And you have to come back…

But it is a beautiful hike.  We started fairly early in the morning as the tide was pulling back. 

We noticed a couple studying a bluff with binoculars, so we started looking.  (Had to be interesting… right?)  They explained that a pair of peregrine falcon was nesting in the area and they were looking for them.   

Ahhhh, that explained the calls I had been hearing.  

We continued our hike and soon I was hearing a lot of raptor complaining.  Between the surf and the echoes of the bluffs it was hard to pinpoint where the sound was coming from but soon I spotted the griper.  Below him/her (?) was another falcon completely ignoring the racket.

The bluffs are sand… or the worst sandstone I’ve ever seen.  Place after place there had been avalanches.  Some had even brought down stairways from the spendy houses at the top of the bluffs.  

In other places, they are coming down grain by grain of sand, like a giant hourglass.

After about 90 minutes of walking, I was starting to feel it in my joints.  That shifting sand works muscles you’ve forgotten you have.   

See that point waaaay behind me?  (Not the island you can see over my left shoulder).  It is around that point the glass beach is located.

But once we got there, it was worth it!  In the little gravel bars were was all sorts of sea glass.  And some pottery shards worn smooth and beautiful too.  

We relaxed and picked thru the sand for several hours.  There were very few people and no one was really close to anyone else.  

Then it was time to get back to the parking lot at North Beach before the tide turned and caught us out.   

That is when I discovered something amazing had happened.  Some time while we were on Glass Beach, the beach between there and North Beach had stretched!!!   

It did!!  Our 3 to 4 mile hike out was at LEAST 25 miles going back.  I am absolutely sure of this! 

I was never so happy to see a parking lot in my life! 

Here is my treasure.  Lots of white and brown, and a good bit of blue and green.  At the top are pieces of white glass.  I’m guessing it is milk glass.  One the side are pieces of red, yellow and orange.  The yellow had 2 types, a translucent and an opaque glass pieces.  That pile of glass is about 2/3 of a gallon.  I hadn’t separated the big pile yet, but when I did there were quite a few that I will be able to make jewelry from.   

Guess I need to line up some more jewelry making classes!