What a Dump!

We traveled to the edge of the “lost coast” specifically to go to the dump.  I know that is not your usual vacation spot, but it is a very old dump with an interesting history.  From 1906 to 1967 the local residents of Fort Bragg went to the local cliffs, admired the view, and threw their trash off the cliffs and into the ocean.  Everything from cars, appliances, bottles, cans and batteries were just dumped off the cliffs owned by the Union Lumber Company into the sea.  In 1967 the California State Water Resources Control Board and local city leaders decided that this was not a good idea and closed the area for dumping.  Over the years several cleanup campaigns were launched and the large items were removed.  The ocean’s pounding waves cleaned the beach of everything else but the broken glass and shards of pottery.  Several decades of pounding waves have left the beach covered with water tumbled sea glass, and the dump is now called Glass Beach.

 

When I first read about Glass Beach I was intrigued (hence the trip to Fort Bragg), but it turns out that this area is so much more.  We camped in the MacKerricher State Park which extends nine miles along the coast.  We hiked along the “haul road” which was created to haul lumber to the Union Lumber Company Mill in Fort Bragg and were treated with beautiful ocean views, rocky headlands, tidal pools, deer, and seals giving birth on the beach.

 

The seals were fascinating to watch.  On the beach they are such awkward animals but in the ocean they navigate through the rocky outcroppings with ease.

  

 

Don't worry we did not get close to the mama and baby, we stayed on the cliffs above the beach and used a telephoto lens.  No seals or babies were disturbed or harmed in these pictures.

This area has been an unexpected surprise and worth the winding drive on highway 20 to get here.
After being warned 6 or 7 times by the locals to turn around and take highway 20 back to Willits rather than head north on highway 1 to Leggitt, we decided to heed that advice and are headed out this morning to continue our trek north.

My 3 Fun Facts for this morning:

1. You must stay at least 50 yards from the seals especially with young calves, as they are very sensitive to disturbances.
2. Fort Bragg is the largest town on the scenic coast between San Francisco and Eureka.
3. Sometimes Mother Nature has a way of fixing our mistakes with unusual and beautiful results.