Walking on Broken Glass

To come on this trip to Hawaii, Andrew and Rebekah had two assignments -- 1) Be in good enough shape to do the hikes and 2) Research Kauai and write a report with recommendations for three hikes they wanted to do and three beaches they wanted to visit. One of the beaches Andrew wanted to visit was Glass Beach -- a little known beach that is not mentioned in Guide Books and is just off one of the few industrial zones. We only had vague directions but when we found it this afternoon it yielded an unforgettable experience.

Andrew found out about it through a search on the Internet and was immediately intrigued and anxious to go. In his persistent way -- much like his older brother, Paul -- he has been bugging us about going there since we arrived here Saturday night. It is unlike any other beach in the world as much of the "sand" is sea glass. Billions of little and sometimes larger pieces of various colors of sea glass. As you walk barefoot along this beach, you are walking on glass but are in no danger of being cut as the sea and sand have rounded every piece off. We could not find one piece that was sharp enough to cut anything.

Here is a picture of Andrew holding a randomly picked up handful of Glass Beach "sand". Note the many colors and that virtually every piece is glass.

Note the glass in this shot of Rebekah's hand. It is like this for about 200 yards along this beach where we only saw a couple of other people the whole time we were there.


Note the glass shimmering in the sun as Andrew and Rebekah search for large pieces and different colors. All the "sand" you see in this photo is sea glass.

Eventually they decided to play in the water and find the pieces as they washed up on the beach.

After hours at the "best beach" they had ever been to, Rebekah and Andrew finally got so hungry they decided it was time to go. As we took the short walk back to our car this brilliant rainbow was in the north sky bringing a fitting end to a terrific day.