Sand City Beach, Monterey Bay

What Sam Carter found here

The glass on this beach comes from the old dump on the Sand City bluff. From around 1920 the peninsula towns hauled their trash up there and burned it. The dump closed in 1955, but the dunes are still eroding, and the glass keeps washing out onto the sand. You'll find it anywhere between Del Monte Beach in Monterey and here. Low tide and the days after a storm are best. Check the gravel patches, and the steep stretch just north of Tioga Avenue, where the waves pile it up. Expect mostly white, green and brown, some seafoam and the odd cobalt. Some pieces have only just come out of the dunes and still have sharp edges. In spring, parts of the beach are roped off for nesting snowy plovers, so stay outside the ropes.