Kauai: Glass Beach

We had read about the glass beach on Kauai, a former dumping site in an industrial area that is now filled with sea glass.  Although I thought it would be kind of neat to see because I really, really love sea glass, I figured we probably wouldn’t actually go there because there were so many other amazing things to do.  Also, going to an industrial area made me a little apprehensive.  It was my neighbor half way down the street who verbalized that he thought this is something that we all should explore.

I’m so glad we did, because as soon as Dr. Peds and I arrived on the beach first thing in the morning, I forgot all about it being in an industrial area.  When we drove up, there was only one character, maybe a little shady, at the beach.  Later more touristy folks arrived, along with our friends.  Seeing so much sea glass altogether in one place almost felt like cheating!  Usually finding sea glass is like finding a special treasure.  Here at home we have a jar of pieces that we’ve collected bit by bit on the shore of Lake Superior.  It’s always exciting when we actually find something.  The Banana is the most consistent and determined sea glass searcher in the family.

This beach was comprised of sea glass and some sand.  The multicolored glass sparkled and glittered in the sun.  A lot of the glass was clear or brown, but there were also green pieces, blue pieces, yellow pieces, and we even found one tiny little purple piece.  Almost all of them were velvety and worn down by the ocean.  The tiny pieces were mixed in with the large sand grains, but there were big pieces just lying around everywhere as well.

It turns out people in Hawaii build rock towers too!  

After spending some time on the beach we hiked up a hill by a very old, rickety cemetery and down a trail that didn’t seem to be often used to view an old dump site  where you could see what the ocean does to nasty garbage.  (It corrodes metal).  It really was an adventurous morning.  The small dumping site wasn’t exactly a pretty place, but it was a good reminder that garbage doesn’t really go away, and that it isn’t a good idea to place a dump next to the ocean.  The landscape next to the dump really was beautiful, with lots of interesting lava rocks on the shore, so it’s kind of sad that this place had become a garbage dump for a time.