Driving Route 1 is amazing as it is but unique gems like Glass Beach make it truly incredible. Glass Beach is one of those places that you just don't want to leave, even though it was only supposed to be a pit stop. 

In case you've never heard of it, Glass Beach is literally a beach covered in sea glass.

It's as pretty as it sounds. Although I have to admit that when I imagined it, I pictured the pieces of glass being bigger. They're actually all quite small and, because selfish dumb-dumbs took all the red and orange pieces (the most rare) home for their personal collections, most of the glass is green or clear in color. However, with a bit of hunched-over searching/digging through the sand, you can still find pieces ranging in color from blue to purple and that elusive red. 

Hunting for certain colors is yet another reason you feel like you need to stay "justfivemoreminutes!"

A bit of history on how Glass Beach came to be, just because we think it's interesting (you're welcome): 

Until 1967, the Glass Beach area in Fort Bragg, California was used as a dump site. Tons of trash, including bottles, household appliances and even entire cars, were dumped into the ocean on a regular basis. A few decades later, the beach was covered in sea glass, the result of all those beer bottles and car headlights being broken apart and smoothed down by the ocean.