Beach find of Red and Yellow Glass, Three Marbles, and More

by David and Lin
(Odyssey Sea Glass, Bow, WA)

Moran Beach on Whidbey Island in the San Juan Island Group of the State of Washington.

Lin and I have spent many hours on this beach and West Beach to the north. A lot of time hunting turns up a few good finds. Some days nothing to speak of. Other days some real treasures. Lin and I found this catch between Moran Beach and West Beach on Whidbey Island, WA, last Tuesday.

Lin found the best pieces, including the very tumbled green marble, the bright yellow piece, and the large perfectly tumbled red piece of beach glass.

We also found some perfect more common colors as well as some nice beach shards and agates.

Here's a comment and our reply (see original below):

Jul 07, 2009 You SCORED!
by: Wendy

Wow! That is an amazing collection for one day...just curious...do you specifically go beach combing at low tide? First thing in the morning? Whenever the urge strikes you?
I love that red piece...

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Hi Wendy,

Thanks for the comment. The interesting thing is that this beach is a middle-of-the-road beach like you would find many places.

We don't find great pieces every time. A red like that is totally unexpected. We have been looking and hoping for a yellow for a long time, and, WOW, Lin found one. But 99.9% of what we find are the normal colors.

BUT, it just goes to show you what's out there on just a "normal" family-type beach. You never know!

West Beach and Moran beach where we found these pieces on is the second and third-closest beaches to where we lived, 40 minutes away.

West Beach is in Deception Pass State Park. Moran Beach is farther south and is a County Beach.

• UPDATE August 2017 - West Beach and Moran Beach are on the same stretch of beach but there is private property in between so you cannot hike from one to the other.
• At one time, there was no problem walking from one beach all the way to the other. However, more recently, homeowners have gotten very upset, so we do NOT recommend leaving the public areas.
• (For more information go to the website Island Beach Access, a group that is trying to get more public access to beaches on the island. Moran Beach info is at 
  http://www.islandbeachaccess.org/beach.php?id=92)

Scroll down to read the comments about the bad experience one couple had.

We have found on this beach that there is just as much glass anywhere from between the high tide line to the low tide line.

The very low tide line is not nearly as good as the mid part, as there are more hours of wave action higher up the beach plus the waves seem to keep the small rocks and sand piled higher up on the beach.

We found it best to go best when the tide was dropping. Although we always check at the tide chart online before we go, but tide levels really don't stop us. We go when we have some time and need to get out of the house...about a couple of times a week.

So, on the beaches in this area, beach glass hunting is good anytime except during the highest tides.

HERE'S THE MAIN POINT:

The real factor to a good beach glass day, really, is not what time you go or what you find...it's being able to enjoy being out there. The unexpected treasures are just the icing on the cake!

~ David and Lin

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Buy this book on Amazon.com:

Afoot & Afloat North Puget Sound

This book is a must-have for sea glass lovers hunting for treasures in the beautiful Puget Sound area. Lin and I own a copy and it has details of how to get to every little accessible beach, cove, point, boat ramp, etc. Not only that, it goes into the history of the particular beaches.

For example, the closest beach to our temporary quarters here in Sequim, WA, is a beach called Port Williams. We wondered why in the world it is called a "port." All there is now is a boat ramp and a tiny county park surrounded by woods and fields.

In detail, this book tells us that it once was the stop along a steamer route and had a post office, dance hall, restaurant, and residences. Now there isn't even a portapottie that we could find. But you can imagine the possibilities of old glass on the beaches described in this book - and other books of this series.

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