By Julie A Cajigas
Yes, in my little corner of the world, beachglass is a verb. I'm going "beachglassing" this weekend honey. I'll be "glassing" today. I started hunting for glass on the shores of Lake Erie about two years ago. My eldest daughter found a glass pendant in my drawer that my mother-in-law brought back from Florida. She asked me what the material was, and I told her it was sea glass from the ocean.
Cue two months of her asking constantly about when we could go find some glass. I googled once or twice, but wasn't convinced. We eventually went out to Main Street Beach in Vermillion with my mom, and after an hour of wandering around, we really hadn't found much - maybe one or two small pieces. Challenge accepted. I was in the process of being diagnosed with ADHD and the prospect of hunting for tiny treasures on the lakeshore appealed to me in a way I hadn't expected.
Two years later, I've probably logged more hours out there than some people have logged in their adult lifetime. I've been there in the dead of winter, the muddy spring, the (occasionally tick-filled) scorching summer and the crisp fall. I am not dissuaded by temperature, weather, good sense, sanity...
With all that time spent, I've learned some things about finding glass. I'm sure I still have a lot to learn, and will update this guide as that happens. I also haven't gone that far out of my region to glass, so my experience is somewhat limited to about half a dozen locations. That said, if you're just starting out or if you are looking for ways to up your glass game, I hope you find value in this how-to.
A little note about territoriality. If you are new to glassing as a hobby, you should know that sharing one's tips and locations is controversial. Many glassers are frustrated at the recent uptick in the popularity of beachglassing and often comment that the glass is "running out" because so many people are taking it. They discourage people from sharing their glassing spots. Maybe it is less plentiful than a decade ago - I can't say. What I can say is, I've been to most of these beaches on days when there were at least a dozen people poking around for glass or rocks and I've never seen a beach picked clean. Every single wave brings more and more glass to the shore and most of it gets buried underneath the sand or washed back out into the lake.
Obviously, given the nature of this website, I am all too happy to share my spots with interested people. If you are one of the people who keeps it all a secret, I won't criticize you - I get it. At the same time, I ask you to be patient and accepting of my choice to share, which comes from a loving place. I have found so much peace, happiness and creativity through beach glass. As a person with ADHD, this hobby helps me greatly to be more centered and offers a healthy reward as I continue to work to be a more effective adult human. If someone else hadn't been kind enough to share, I wouldn't have figured it out. I would rather find a few less pieces each trip and know that others are having the same healing, transformative experience with this hobby than keep my secrets secret.
P.S., speaking of territoriality, there is a kind of "etiquette" about the space of others who are hunting glass. Some people think you need to keep a huge distance from others as they have claimed "their" spot. As for me, walk right up next to me, but please be mindful of my sunlight. If your shadow is covering the area where I'm searching, that's a bit of a faus pax.
The reason I began writing beach reviews in the first place is that the glass at each beach is different in quantity, size and quality. In addition to between beach differences, there are also differences in what you might find at any given beach due to weather, wind, and the resulting surf.
You can visit a beach in the morning and find very little, then come back to that same beach in the afternoon and find a wealth of glass washing up. If you look at the right, I've included some comparison photos of Bradstreet's Landing and Perkins Beach at Edgewater at different times. I've been at Bradstreet's Landing in the morning, watched a storm blow through, and returned to find a completely different looking beach.
A quick aside: people will tell you to search during or right after a storm to find the big glass, but often that advice ends up being a bust. If you look at the top image of Perkins, that was the day after a big storm. The surf was still so high that it filled the beach with smooth sand. Depending how deep the sand is, you can sometimes dig and find the rock layer (and the glass), but in that case we found almost nothing. Two days later, I found one of the biggest pieces I've ever found under a pile of rocks.
If you are serious about finding and collecting glass, it's best to visit each beach a few times before deciding whether or not you like it. I have beaches I like for glass, beaches I prefer for fossils/rocks, beaches that are just beautiful, and beaches that I have an emotional attachment to.
Below, I have provided some comparison photos of glass found in a single trip at a few of my favorite beaches. This gives you an idea of the quantity you can expect to find if you search the way I do, but also it shows the difference in the quality of the glass. Quality is determined by the surf, the shape of the beach, the tides and probably a million other factors that I can't divine. Color is determined by what glass was dumped near the beach and how the glass travels through the lake.
In terms of glass quality, Kenneth J. Sims Park (scroll down for the images) has some of the roundest, smoothest, most pristine glass I have found. The surf there can be high, but it is also protected by break walls and divided into coves. The beach has a wide variety of colors and I've found three marbles and multiple shards of marbles.
Now take a look at glass from Bradstreet's Landing below and glass from Wendy Park. Both beaches tend to have more glass to find, but the average color and quality of the glass found in each place differs.
Wendy Park generally has a lot of what looks like volcanic rock. I'm sure it's something from the industrial part of Cleveland, but it's black and gravelly. The clear glass I find at Wendy Park is generally yellowed. The glass tends to have sharper corners and be less tumbled. I do find lots of special colors, tiles and other interesting findings at Wendy.
Bradstreet's Landing has copious amounts of glass, and it's the best beach of the three to reliably find bonfire glass (glass that has been melted and merged with sand or other glass).
The glass is mixed with some round and frosted and some flat, less tumbled glass. You'll notice that the clear glass at Bradstreet isn't as pastel or pure white as the glass at Sims.
All of the "averages" aside, you can be surprised at any beach, finding the glass of your dreams. One day at Bradstreet's Landing, I saw a little sliver of yellow peeking out from beneath the sand. It was a yellow and sky blue marble - one of the most unique I've seen. Turns out, it is vintage boy scout marble. I wrapped it into a pendant for a Ukranian friend who raises money to help refugees from her country.
The moral of the story is: try and learn as much as you can about the beaches in advance and don't give up on a beach after one or two visits. If you happen to be there on the wrong kind of weather day or if many glass hunters have already been there, you could get the wrong impression. I always suggest scouting the whole beach the first time you visit. But, more on that coming up next. Either way, it takes several visits to get a feel for what the glass is like "on average" at any given beach. Hopefully you'll find my reviews helpful in determining which beach you want to try.
One of the biggest mistakes I make when glassing is not scouting out the section of the beach I plan to explore first. This is usually because once I start looking in a spot, I get sucked into the hunt and realize only shortly before I have to leave that I've left most of the beach untouched.
Some beaches, like Bradstreet's Landing are relatively small and can be scouted in a few minutes. Other beaches like Edgewater and Headlands are very large, so I might choose a specific area to focus on for that day and scout that out. What I want to avoid is my personal Murphy's Law trap - I find the spot with the best glass the minute I have to leave the beach.
It's easy to get caught up in that first little spot you find a piece of glass and to miss out on areas that have the best, largest and most interesting glass. As a mother of four, I'm always on the clock. So, what I suggest (do what I say, not what I do) is to scout the location, shuffle the rock around in several spots in the area you want to explore at the outset of your visit and make a plan for the remainder of your time.
Here are a few "truths" of beachglass that I have found that help me to scout based on what I'm looking for:
Glass Size Matches Rock Size
Sometimes you can find a huge chunk of glass in gravel, but that's not the norm. Normally to find larger pieces of glass you need to find areas with larger piles of stone. Sure, sometimes you can happen upon a larger piece as it washes up, but for the most part, if you want big glass, look for stones about the size you want to find. One thing about hunting in larger rocks is that you find less per capita. Glass pieces that large are fairly rare, so you may only find one or two pieces rather than a dozen small pieces in gravel.
Glass Gathers Where the Water Stops
Another thing I've found to be true (generally) is that the glass tends to be lighter or less dense than the rocks of similar size and tends to make it farther up the beach. If there are lots of similarly sized rocks at the shoreline, sometimes it will get stuck throughout, but most of the glass that I find was washed up a day before and is pretty far removed from the shoreline.
When I come to a beach, I notice the newer glass hunters walking along the shoreline and avoiding the rocks further up that are sometimes mixed with detrius like branches or leaves.
Meanwhile, I'm up there digging through the area where the waves just kiss, maybe a foot before the dry area and then into the dry area as well. This tends to be a glass-rich environment most of the time and is where I find a lot of my medium pieces. Generally under the dry layer is a layer of wet where the glass is easy to spot.
The other thing about this "truth" is that whenever the small rocks pile up (are stopped) in front of logs, large rocks, or really any other large beach features, glass tends to get trapped in there. I love scooping out the stone around the edges of boulders and large driftwood because sometimes the neatest pieces are there.
To the right see images of an area with large rocks that I explored recently. The second image is my findings in about 10 minutes of digging there.
Look Under the Sand
When the winds kick up and the waves start to smooth out the shoreline, sometimes you can dig deep and you just find more sand, but pretty often if you dig into the smoothed area (particularly if it has recently begun smoothing) on a typically rocky beach, you'll find the mid-sized gravel/stone, which is the absolute best for finding small to medium pieces of rounded glass. Rarely do I see other glass hunters looking in the smooth sand for layers of gravel, so usually I find a good bit under there.
To the right is an image where I dug down into the sand to find more glass and medium sized rocks.
Avoid Zebra Mussel Shells
For some reason, glass doesn't tend to collect in areas where there is a high concentration of mussel shells from the lovely, invasive zebra mussel. If you see an area of beach that looks like it's half gravel and half mussel shells (or more), your likelihood of finding glass drops pretty significantly. I wonder if it's because the shells are lighter and less dense than the glass, so tend to cover it. I also find that at beaches like Wendy Park, which has the black slag-looking rock, the areas with more of that tend to have less glass as well.
If the Surf is Just Right, Stay at the Shoreline
Sometimes you'll end up at the beach on a perfect surf day. It will be strong enough to bring in big pieces, but gentle enough not to sweep sand over the beach. These days are gifts. You can just walk the shore and every other wave brings up one or two amazing pieces of glass. Some waves are just right for lucky stones (ear bone of the drum fish and coveted beach combing find), and you'll find one after the other washing in. It seems most people think this kind of surf is common, but I have not found that to be the case. If you see it happening when you scout the beach, take full advantage. You can poke around and dig other days.
Using the above five principles, take in the conditions at your beach. To do this, I quickly walk the beach and use my scoop to look at a layer or two under the surface of any interesting spots. This is also how I find hidden gravel beds under smooth sand.
As I scout, I prioritize areas.
I also think about which areas will work for me to sit for a while and dig and which areas will require me to stand and bend. I try to plan out my glassing with some seated parts in the middle to give my lower back a break.
Now you're ready to get started with your glass session, which brings us to the next, crucial tip.
I have had many, many people tell me they've never seen glass at a beach, despite looking. I ask what beaches they have been to, and they quickly list off some of the hot spots that I find a lot of glass in without trying very hard. I used to think it was odd, but then I realized that when I go glassing, I spend about 95% of my time either bending nearly completely over so my face is less than a foot from the ground, or sitting/laying so that my face is even closer to the ground.
For friends who can't bend that long, I've recommended bringing a gardening knee pad, a little stool, or just sitting right on the ground.
Glass is not easy to see at a distance. By a distance I mean four or five feet, which is about the minimum distance for a fully erect adult.
Many people use long handled scoops to do basic searching, but the only time I use a long scoop is to pull rocks and fossils out of the water (I love my long scoop, don't get me wrong). Even at its shortest setting, if I used it as my main scoop, I would be unable to see about 75% of the glass that's there.
Some beaches (I'm looking at you Perkins) are very well-known among the more serious glass hunters. If you look in the image to the right, this is a winter day at Perkins. Most other Northeast Ohio beaches are empty in this weather, but not Perkins. Notice that in each pair along the beach at least one person is close to the ground kneeling or crouching.
I guess there's not much to this tip other than - get down!
As I've noted, you can find glass just walking along at times. For me, digging is an integral part of the cathartic experience of finding beach glass. I'm also convinced the amount of time I spend digging is one of the reasons I find so much in a single session.
So, yes, I recommend digging. But, you've got to dig the right way.
I've seen just about every tool being used to dig on the beach from people's hands to those long-poled beachcombing scoops. Regardless of what you are using, there is, I have found, a "best practices" method for digging based on what you are digging into.
If you're digging into smooth sand:
If you're looking for the gravel layer below smoothed sand, you're going to want to dig as in the traditional sense of the word. You'll actually make a little hole in the sand and keep going down until you hit gravel. Once I hit that gravel, I clear away maybe a square foot of sand and then move on to the second method.
If you're digging into gravel:
When you are digging in stone that is pea gravel to mid-sized rocks there is a singular method that I have found to be most successful. Do not dig a hole. Do not scoop out piles of stones. What I actually do is hold the basket of my scoop in my hand face down (rather than the handle) and use the flat edge to sweep away just the top layer or two of the gravel. If you dig like an excavator, you will dig out the glass that between the stones and pile it away. By sweeping layer by layer, you will find glass much more easily. I've seen people use garden hand rakes and cultivators, but trying those myself, I don't find them to be the best tool for the job. My tool of choice is a mesh reptile litter scoop, and lately I have come to favor the ones with a deeper, more rounded basket like this one.
If you're digging into large rocks:
If you are looking under relatively large stones, you should move them aside with your hands rather than using your reptile scoop or other mesh/metal/plastic scooper. Why? The big rocks will likely break them. One day at Sims I got a little bit excited in a big rock pile and completely destroyed my scoop. As I walked to the car looking at it, I imagined taps playing in the background. The heavier rocks bend the metal as you are scooping and can tear the mesh. Move the largest rocks aside with your hands to clear an area. Once you reach mid-sized stone and gravel, you can go back to the main method of shifting layer by layer with your scoop.
An important note: Don't sweep the glass away too quickly as you'll see the sparkle of color just a little bit too late to grab it. You should also sweep each layer back and forth a bit as it allows you to see the sparkle of glass that may be caught up between stones.
When I suggested earlier in this guide that you avoid casting your shadow on other glasser's search spots, it was because one of the most important tools any glass hunter has is sunlight. The easiest way to spot glass is when the light from the sun catches it. There is such a thing as sun that's too bright, but full sun is generally the easiest lighting for finding glass.
If the sun isn't available because it's dark and cloudy or the sun has started to go down, you've always got your phone flashlight. Believe it or not, I use my phone light for hunting from just before the sun sets until the park rangers kick me out. I so wish that was a joke (why aren't beaches open later?).
I find that the phone flashlight has some advantages over the sun. The biggest of these is that the glass glows very clearly when the phone catches it. Funny as this may sound, it only works in the dark. Adding your phone light on a sunny day isn't going to make one lick of difference. But adding it on a dark cloudy day or in the dusk/sunset hours is a game changer.
If you are looking for uranium glass, yooperlites (sodalite rocks that glow under blacklight) or any flourescent minerals, you are definitely going to want to make friends with the dark. You'll want to carry along a black light or a 365 UV light (which makes many things you might want to find flouresce).
Just be careful to check the hours of your beach location, first and foremost, because you don't want the ranger coming for you or locking the parking lot gate with your car inside. Second, but not quite as serious, is that they often lock the bathrooms at closing time. I may actually write a story about beach bathrooms and accessibility because it's a huge issue for those of us with digestive issues.
The old scouts motto "Be Prepared" is definitely apropos for the beach glasser.
What kinds of things do I bring along with me?
I have already linked them above, but here they are again. The main scoop I currently use is this one. I previously wrote about this flatter one, which also works quite well. My sister-in-law bought me a telescopic handled scoop for pulling rocks out of the lake and I find it very helpful for rock hounding and sometimes for nabbing a little piece of glass out past the shore. (I can only imagine how useful it would have been when my keys ended up way out in the frozen lake ice).
I used three kinds of bags for beachcombing. Yes, I know, that seems like a lot of different bags. Each one serves a specific purpose.
Mesh Collecting Bag: First, I use this mesh bag for collecting glass, fossils and smaller rocks. I used to use plastic ziplock bags or plastic Dunkin cups (and still do when I forget my beaching bag), but there are some significant disadvantages with these.
First, all of the sand, dirt, seaweed, algae, goose poop and various other things that might be attached to your findings will end up marinating in the bag (ewww). The sand will remain wet and you may make the same mistake I did, which was filling my garbage disposal with sediment and blocking it, while rinsing your glass.
Second, because these aren't attached to you, you could drop them. I have dropped both a Ziploc and a plastic cup of glass. It's a tragedy let me tell you. The glass quickly skips and scatters away, falling between the rocks and becoming incredibly difficult to find. Heaven forbid you have a rare piece or marble in your bag.
The beauty of the mesh bag is that the sand dries and falls through the mesh so you don't have a sandy clump at the bottom of your glass. Just don't set it anywhere you don't want sand while it's wet, or it will be sitting on a pile of sand when it dries.
I like The Sand Dipper Bag because it has a front pocket for your cell phone and two different mesh pockets. The strap is sturdy and adjustable, so you can comfortably wear it and place the glass inside hands-free. There are cheaper ones, but they didn't hold up for me well.
Mesh Backpack and Tote Bag: I bought both my mesh backpack and mesh tote at Target, and they are great for carrying larger rocks or supplies. I sometimes use the mesh backpack to put my keys and phone in, though that won't work out well if it begins to rain or I drop the bag in the Lake. The beauty of the mesh backpack or tote is that the sand will fall through just like the glass collecting bag. Ideally by the time you get home, whatever sandy items you put in while be clean(ish) and dry.
Recently, I found this must-have mesh bag from Little Shop of Jul's at Northside Marketplace in Akron.
Fanny Pack: I can hear my husband's bemused voice saying "is that a fanny pack?" Yes, but it's a stylish one from Target that can also be worn as a crossbody. Pockets are not your friend on the beach. My phone has landed in the lake and my keys have landed in an icy crust five feet out into the lake as well. You can read the story about me losing my keys in ice here. They were in a coat pocket with a hole and fell through the lining. Now I wear my fanny pack and keep my phone, keys and anything else I need firmly attached to my person.
The lake is sometimes clean and pleasant, but other times the shore is littered with grass clippings, rotting leaves, dead fish and one awful day, a bunch of ticks on the shore. I see a lot of glass hunters with bare feet on the ground, but I personally prefer to wear boots. It also helps when the surf is aggressive and variable. I don't want my shoes getting soaked. I also have super heavy wool socks to wear with my boots during frozen winter visits.
The most important thing about the boots is that they should keep water away from your feet. I have knee high boots so I can walk out a ways into the water to find some special rocks with my longer scoop. There are lots of different waterproof wellies and rainboots out there to choose from. I suppose if you really want to search the lake bed you could invest in some hip waders.
As for me, I love my Jileon boots.
If you're a plus-sized lady who has a hard time finding boots, I can't say enough good things about Jileon Wide Calf Durable Rubber Rain Boots on Amazon. They come in wide and extra-wide. I've even bought a pair as a gift for a fellow glasser. These boots are thick, sturdy and waterproof. They are warm enough with my heavy wool socks in winter and not too hot in summer. Most importantly, they protect my feet, ankles and calves right up to my knee.
If you spend any time on Lake Erie near Cleveland, you know the weather can change at the drop of a hat. I have a story about getting caught in the mother of all hail storms and then seeing a rainbow afterward.
For Rain: An umbrella is large, awkwardly shaped, and generally the wind at the lake is way too strong to make them practical.
I highly recommend bringing along a poncho or a good rain coat. You can get a nice reusable poncho/raincoat, or just get a couple of cheap disposable ponchos at the dollar store and keep them in your bag. Either way, they come in so handy when you've found the holy grail of glassing spots and the sky opens up.
For Snow: If you plan to glass in the dead of winter, you are going to want to layer and cover as much of your skin as you can.
I have a fantastic alpaca scarf-hat combo from LiRo Apparel and Accessories that keeps me warm and keeps my scarf attached to me. I've literally had other scarves blow off. This is going to sound weird, but you also want an extra-snug hat. As much as you are going to be bending over, you don't want your hat falling off.
Last of all, you want to have appropriate gloves.
Your hands are going to get wet and then the cold is going to seem ten times as cold. So, I recommend having waterproof gloves with a good grip; otherwise, you'll keep taking them off to pick up glass, which basically makes them pointless. I use a pair of gardening gloves over my alpaca gloves.
Glassing is fun. With my personality, it's so much fun that I find myself six hours deep in it with the sorest hamstrings of all time. It is also therapeutic, cathartic and a great way to enjoy the lake.
Please be safe out there. Pay attention to:
The rules - Every beach has rules. If it's a posted no swimming beach, don't swim. Maybe it's no swimming because there aren't buoys or life guards, but maybe it's no swimming because there's a waste treatment plant nearby (true story). Don't sneak onto private beaches. Don't take glass from places where that is prohibited (apparently Ohio Nature Preserves). Some of these beaches close and actually have rangers that come to clear them out and lock them (Bradstreet, Rocky River City Park, Huntington, etc.) Doing a little pre-research is never a bad idea.
Beach hazard warnings - Riptides in Lake Erie are no joke. People get pulled under and die. If hazard warnings are going on the beach is not likely to have an abundance of glass, but if you go out, just stay out of the water. When I see people swimming or walking far out during these warnings, I feel a sense of panic. Check the weather before heading down.
Other people - Unfortunately, some of Cleveland's most beautiful beaches are not in the safest areas. I like to take a buddy with me, especially if I plan to be there through dusk. No matter who I'm glassing with (or if I'm alone), I'm always trying to stay aware of my surroundings. If I notice that I'm alone and one other person enters the area, I may choose to leave. The good thing about the increased popularity of glassing is that there are usually more than one or two people out there and that makes me feel safer.
Wildlife - I've run into a lot of wildlife (skunks, fish, ducks, snakes, bugs). The worst (IMO) is the dang geese and the damn (excuse my french) black flies.
Geese are so mean. They hiss at you. The baby geese make this little hooting sound that reminds me of the Dilophosoaurus in Jurassic Park that spits black goo at you before disembowling you. Must be a distant relation. They also poop all over the beach and that poop smells like dead fish. It gets in your boots and shoes and hides between the rocks.
The black flies have been incredibly bad in 2024. I thought mosquitos were the scourgiest of scourges, but no - it's the black flies. They bite through thick clothing and for whatever reason I'm extremely allergic to their bite. I rarely have issues with bug bites at the lake, but man these black flies. Just watch out. Oh, and the ticks. Recently the small creek that runs through Bradstreet's Landing beach shifted. Where the previous creek bed was exposed, there were piles of ticks - PILES. Thank goodness for my boots.
Now, once you've gotten all those safety tips handled - have fun. It's ok if you don't want to share your secret spots, but so far I've met some wonderful people while glassing. If you're open to it, say hi to people you see. You might find a fun new friend. If you see me out there, say hi!
