Tien, Rachelle, Shannan, Kristin, Jill (Photo by Jen)

After my we got shave ice, my brother guys went off on their own to go shopping at Aunty Lilikoi’s. I thought the rest of us were all just headed home, but then Shannan and I got to talking and somehow Glass Beach, a beach I’d never visited, came up. Shannan had read about it in a guide book and realized that we were not far away, so we telephoned Kristin and we all went on a detour.

Glass Beach is located in the Hanapepe Bay near Port Allen Harbor in a really industrial area. The beach gets its name because it is covered in sea glass, glass from bottles, windows, windshields, that has been tumbled and smoothed by the waves, water, and sand, creating smooth, frosted pebbles of glass.

(Photo by Kristin)

The reason for all the glass is that this was a dump site for many years. Around the corner, to the left, there still is a dump. And decades ago, locals used to dump their old cars and trash at this spot.

Next to Glass Beach there’s a stretch of rocky shoreline, called Swiss Cheese Shoreline, that is full of fused in metal auto parts, old appliances and industrial looking stuff. Jess G. was off exploring this while we were all marvelling over the glass. I didn’t really take any photos over there, but check out this Flickr set I found online.

I read on some message boards that most of the glass at Glass Beach has been picked over and removed. It’s said that a generation ago you could go to the beach with 5-gallon buckets and just scoop the glass up. That the glass was about 6-inches thick. Now, it’s just a thin layer mixed in with the sand. but we still had a fun time beachcombing and finding all sorts of colors of glass. Since it’s by a dump, glass is not all that washes up either. Watch out for garbage, metal.. I found a button. Who knows what all is out there in the water.

Kristin

Sea glass is getting to be a rarity these days. More and more, things are being packaged in plastic instead of glass, shipwrecks are rare these days, people don’t dump their garbage in the ocean any more. Also, a lot of beaches bring in sand to replenish the shore line, burying any sea glass that may have washed in. For this reason, I’m glad we stopped at Glass Beach. So we could see it before it’s gone.

Glass Beach is really beautiful, if you ignore the gas tanks that overlook it on one side, but it really is just a place to do some beachcombing. The lava rocks and surf make it unsuitable for swimming and it doesn’t seem like a place you’d really want to hang out all day at either. When you think about it, there must be so much junk off shore, it kind of grosses me out. Still, there’s a lot of beauty in the grit. I found the lava rock with the waves crashing in on it really gorgeous. And the sea glass is definitely something to see.

Sources: Washington Post, To-Hawaii, 43 Places, TripAdvisor, Sew Trashy.

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