Colors of Nature: Beaches

This is going to be a series of all the beautiful naturally colored wonders that I know of.

Starting the ‘Colors of Nature’ series with –

Unusual Beaches:

Walking down the sand with the fresh ocean breeze kissing your cheeks…. the most cherished beach memory takes on the ‘colors of nature’ when the beach has been painted to different hues! Presenting real beaches handpicked from across the globe that are colored – White, Red, Olive Green, Pink, Chocolate Brown, Purple, Black and Rainbow. I also have two bonus finds – Shell Beach and Glass beach. Read more –

White –

Whitest sand in the world!!

Hyam’s Beach, New South Wales, Australia holds the Guinness World Record for the whitest sand beach in the world. Made of quartz – one of the most common yet spectacular minerals in the Earth’s crust, this bay is at least six times bigger in volume and four times bigger in area than the famous Sydney Harbour.

Red –

A difficult to reach wonder!

Kaihalulu, or Red Sand Beach, Hawaii – One of a very few red beaches in the world, the sand gets its red-black color from the iron-rich crumbling cinder cone hill surrounding the bay. The slippery trek (due to  crumbling cinder and pine needles from the trees) down to the beach is definitely worth the effort!

Olive Green – 

Another one from Hawaii!

Pu’u Mahana Beach, Hawaii – one of only a few known beaches in the world with olive-green sand. The land surrounding Pu’u Mahana consists of lava that contains large quantities of olivine, the mineral that forms of the semi-precious gem peridot. Strong waves constantly pound this coast, sweeping other particles out to sea while leaving the heavier olivine on the beach. Beach-goers have been rumored to find peridots on the beach large enough to sell to jewelers.

Pink –

Pink sands beach at Harbor Island, The Bahamas

Harbor Island Beach, Eleuthera in the Bahamas – finest example of a “Pretty In Pink”. Such beaches occur only in areas near a very large coral reef formations that contain a tiny organism that has a red skeleton. When they die, these skeletons fall to the ocean floor and are gradually eroded to small particles that are carried to shore by the current, where they mix in with the sand.

Chocolate Brown –

This California beach has sands in dark chocolate color!

Rockaway Beach in Pacifica, California, exhibits a most luscious shade of chocolate brown. This unusual color occurs when eroded bluish-grey limestone mixes with volcanic greenstone from the hillsides that ring the beach.

Purple –

Manganese garnet, washed down from the hillside above, gives Pfeiffer Beach its distinctive purple sand

Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California – Surrounded by hills rich in Manganese Garnet that washes down onto the beach giving it a shifting shades of royal purple, lavender, pink and ruby red!!!

Black – 

The stunning black sand of the Punalu’u Beach Park

Punalu’u Beach, Hawaii – The stunningly black sand is actually volcanic rock, deposited as lava and subsequently cooled when met by the ocean. A local legend says that if you take any of the sand home, it would result in you being cursed by a volcano goddess by the name of Pele.

Rainbow –

The colored rocks result in different colored layers of sands at the aptly named – Rainbow Beach

Rainbow Beach on Fraser Island in Australia – With a display of more than 70 different colors, most of whom are seen in the surrounding cliffs that were formed during the last ice age, this beach has been compared to layers of rainbow sherbet! For a real treat, dig down into the beach sand to see layer upon layer of colored, banded sands that create a new work of art with each sweep of the hand!!!

And the Bonus ones –

Shells –

The beautiful shells that outline the coast forming a stunning picture nonetheless!

Shell Beach in the Shark Bay, Western Australia – one of only a handful of places on earth where shells replace beach sand in such a dramatic and picturesque way. The beach stretches for more than 100 kilometres with shells between seven and ten metres deep.

Glass –

A classic example of lessons of nature!

Glass Beach, California – The Dump You’ll Want to Visit – For years the local residents dumped automobiles, appliances, toxic substances and razor sharp shards of glass into the water. The beaches under the cliffs lay polluted, cluttered and ruined, and were basically treated as a forgotten ‘mistake.’Mother Earth had a few tricks up her sleeve, and spent the next 30 years tumbling away the jagged edges of our insensitivity and leaving behind brilliant pebbles of polished glass!!

Hope you enjoyed reading about these wonders of nature that are stunning and intriguing and of course – a must, must visit!

Stay tuned for more…