Long Beach Peninsula Sea Glass? Travelogue...

by Pete Suchon
(Washington, USA)

We took a couple days off and drove out to the Long Beach peninsula to stay in Ocean Park WA.

We had planned this trip back at the end of July - first part of August, and I think we originally got interested in the area after finding out it's called "the graveyard coast". Anyway, we put it on our list of beaches to go to for possible sea glass.

Pat went on-line and found a resort in Ocean Park that switched to winter rates at the first of October. She made reservations and we got a room for $55. Essentially a bed and a bathroom, but since we anticipated being on the beach all day anyway, it was perfect.

We really lucked out weather-wise as it was sunny and 66 both days we were there. Can you imagine walking a beach in Washington in shirt-sleeves and shorts... in OCTOBER?? As I said, lucky, lucky, lucky. Unfortunately our luck wasn't so good for sea glass.



Long Beach peninsula promotes itself as being "28 miles of beach" and thats true... it's a fine sand beach from end to end and as far out as the tide will go. That's all you will find is sand. No rocks, no shells (except the odd broken crab or clam shell) no wrack line, no driftwood, and definitely no sea glass; just sand as far as you can see.



We spent the first day driving the length of the peninsula, from Oysterville to Cape Disappointment, turning off at every beach access point, and we found the same sand beach at every stop.

The next day we were up at dawn and on the road north to see if there was anything on the other side of Willapa Bay.

Willapa Bay, as far as we could see, consists mainly of tide flats, great if you're after clams or oysters (mmm oysters) but utter rubbish for sea glass or driftwood.



After stopping in South Bend for breakfast, including a lovely Craisen Cinnamon Bun from the "Knot Another Bakery" we finally found some driftwood at a scenic overlook near the 9 mile marker of SR 105 near Dexter by the Sea.

Alas there was only sand on the beach here as well.

Pushing farther north we stopped at the Grayland Beach State Park. Once more on the ocean, this time there was gravel out near the low tide mark. We spent 30 minutes looking but found no glass; although we did manage to snag several miraculously undamaged Sand Dollars from the gulls.



We followed SR 105 around to Aberdeen. By now it was nearly noon, and knowing that a 4 hour trip home would put us smack dab in the middle of Seattle's rush hour traffic, we decided to pack it in and head home as fast as our pudgy little legs would carry us.

So what did we learn? First and foremost, we decided that the Southwest Washington coast has nothing to offer the sea glass hunter. But, if you are looking for a lovely sand beach to drive on, or lay on and soak up the sun, it is perfect.

Second, the town of Oysterville has no actual oysters. There is a "Oysterville Sea Farm" that sells oysters, clams and crab but the pint of oysters I bought there was labeled as coming from South Bend which is across the bay.



If you do head over this way and are as fond of oysters as I am I recommend Brady's Oysters near Markham on SR 105. The people working there were funny, friendly and the oysters are farmed using the suspension method; best tasting oysters ever.

How would you rate this beach for sea glass?: Poor (0-2 jewelry grade pcs. found per hour)