In this post, I’ll share how we found one of these glass floats after a three-day search, and everything you need to know to find your own glass float in this exciting real-world treasure hunt.
I’d also recommend checking out our video of finding the glass float, because of course, a video is worth a thousand words.
Why Does Lincoln City Hide Glass Floats?
First, some context! According to Lincoln City, many years ago, glass floats all the way from Japan used to wash up on the Oregon Coast. Their purpose was to keep fishing nets afloat. They were a coveted find for beachcombers hunting for treasure in the tideline.
Since fishing floats are no longer made of glass, finding authentic glass fishing floats on the Oregon coast is unlikely now. So in 1999, Lincoln City began the tradition of sponsoring glass artists to make their own blown-glass floats. The floats are then hidden on the beach every day of the year by volunteers called “Float Fairies.”
This is such a fun tradition for the public, and I imagine it likewise benefits the city by bringing in visitors. Those visitors tend to support local restaurants, hotels…and of course glass galleries selling floats–for those who really want a float and don’t find one on the beach themselves (or you can even buy floats or float ornaments these days on Amazon…we won’t judge!).
Best Times to Find Glass Floats in Lincoln City
Floats are hidden every day of the year, but if you’re specifically planning a trip to Lincoln City to look for glass floats, I’d recommend timing it with one of the city’s “Special drops.”
Special drops are weekends or occasionally whole weeks when more floats are hidden than usual. Lincoln City plans them throughout the year, but there are fewer in the summer. I think that’s likely because the special drops draw visitors to Lincoln City, and there are already a lot of summer visitors.
Check out the special drop calendar here.
We looked for floats for three days on separate occasions. The first two days we looked were normal days, but the third day was part of the Antique Week Special Drop. That’s when we found our float!
Tips for Finding a Glass Float in Lincoln City
What are the boundaries for the float search?
Floats can be found anywhere in Lincoln City along the 7 miles of beach (between Roads End and Siletz Bay). A really cool aspect about searching for floats is that you end up exploring miles of this beautiful coastline. If you like long walks on the beach, this treasure hunt is for you.
How far from the waves are the floats hidden?
Once we started searching for floats on the beach, we quickly started to wonder about the particulars. Just how far from the ocean should we focus our search?
The floats are hidden above the high tide line. The idea is that the floats shouldn’t be so close to the ocean that they’ll get carried out to sea.
They’re also hidden below the embankment (the bluffs/cliffs that run along the edge of the beach).
In between the high tide line and the beach embankment, there’s a lot of sand and also a pretty wide area of beach grass at the base of the embankment. This beach grass stumped us for a while. Was it out-of-bounds too, or was it not considered part of the embankment? It looked like a much better hiding place than the sand, since the grass and other plants could easily block a glass float from view.
After much internal debate, we asked the city via Twitter about that beach grass at the base of the embankment. They said the floats wouldn’t be hidden there, so we had our answer!
How big are the glass floats?
The float we found is the size of a large grapefruit.
How hidden are the glass floats?
After many hours of clambering over driftwood and peering into hollowed-out logs, we found our glass float…right out in the open. It was sitting on the sand at the back of the beach, next to a cement wall.
My top advice: stay tuned to your surroundings and don’t daydream! I would have walked right by it if Bryan hadn’t pointed it out. I was shocked when he suddenly said, “Look!”
I glanced up, and there it was—a perfect, purple-and-blue glass float perched on the sand.
The city even says on their website that they want the floats to be found—so they’re not going to be very well hidden.
Our Search for Floats in Lincoln City
It was a late afternoon in mid-February when we found our float. We had been looking for floats for 3 ½ hours. Over the last hour it had started to rain. It started as a mist, and then it deepened into a steady light rain. It didn’t feel like a big deal at first, but soon it left our hair plastered to our faces. Bryan was walking gingerly from just having slipped and fallen hard on a rock.
I was lost in thought about whether to continue the float hunt in light of Bryan’s fall. We had decided to turn back toward our car, but it was still at least two hours’ walk away. Should I jog back and drive to pick him up? Call a Lyft? As I considered this, I stopped focusing on the float search. We had just covered this ground a few minutes before, after all–we had turned around and begun retracing our steps.
That’s when Bryan’s excited voice cut across my thoughts. He had found a float!
Our float find underscored advice we had found on the city’s website: floats can be hidden at any time of day (but not at night). I think our float was likely hidden between 4:00 and 4:30 pm, sometime between when we walked by that spot heading south and when we turned around and passed the same spot heading north.
I say we found our float after 3 ½ hours, but our search for floats had actually begun the month before. When we stopped in Lincoln City to check out the Harry Potter-themed cafe, the “Cheeky Cauldron,” we came across a notice for the Finders Keepers glass float treasure hunt. We were immediately intrigued.
Hot butterbeers in hand, we walked from the Cheeky Cauldron to the closest beach entrance about 10 minutes away, at NW 15th St. We spent the afternoon poking around looking for floats.
It was January, but a magnificent sunny day. The beach was stunning. Seagulls swooped over the rocky tide pools, and the short winter day soon gave way to a glorious sunset.
We left that day with no float, but a plan to return.
A couple days later, we did return. On that second day of our float hunt, we started near the southern end of the 7-mile beach boundary: the SW 51st St beach access at Taft Waterfront Park, which is on Siletz Bay.
My first reaction when we got there: If I were hiding glass floats, I would hide them here. There must be some bizarre currents at play, because the place is totally covered in driftwood. Huge driftwood logs, heaps of tiny driftwood twigs, and everything in between–it’s all there.
The driftwood forts of my childhood rose to the top of my mind as I stared out over this vast driftwood empire.
The downside: Searching for miles under all that driftwood would be a true undertaking. There also seemed to be people everywhere in this driftwood otherworld. Some were building forts or watching the waves, but a few were walking around, their eyes traveling over the ground. I narrowed my eyes and assessed this potential competition (of course, in a friendly way). Some of these people were definitely also looking for floats!
While I do think the Taft Waterfront Park area is the best place to actually hide something, I’m not sure you’re more likely to find a float there than at any of the other Lincoln City beaches. As I mentioned above, the city wants people to find their floats!
If You Find a Glass Float
If you find a float in Lincoln City, you can register it online, and the city will then mail you a certificate and information about the artist!
To register a float, you’ll need the identification number, which is on the underside of the float. The floats are round, but they have flat stands so they can rest on a table or other surface without rolling around. The registration number on our float is etched into the glass near the stand.
The float registration page can be found here.
While You’re Searching for Glass Floats: Beach Cleanup!
Before we found our float, we found a lot of trash, particularly bits of Styrofoam. Looking for floats is a perfect opportunity to pick up litter that you find along the way. Remember to bring a bag so you can collect it. Together we can make the beaches more beautiful!
The Lincoln City glass float treasure hunt reminded me of searching for Easter baskets with my brother when we were little. One year, he looked all over the house for his Easter basket, but couldn’t find it. He had stepped out onto the porch several times, and we’d excitedly said, “You’re getting warmer! It’s red hot!” It turned out the basket was actually right above him, hanging on a hook meant to hold a potted plant. Sometimes the things hiding in plain sight are harder to spot!
Have you ever found a glass float in Lincoln City, or looked for one? Let us know in the comments!
Full details on the Finders Keepers program, including the rules, are here.
Other Things to Do in Lincoln City
While you’re in the area, be sure to check out these other nearby places!
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Harry Potter-themed Cafe, the Cheeky Cauldron
There’s nothing like getting hot butterbeers or pumpkin juice after a day of looking for floats on the coast.
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God’s Thumb is a beautiful windswept headland. Standing on it feels like being on the edge of the world. This hike travels through mossy forest before first opening out onto the Knoll (a grassy hillside overlooking the ocean) and then continuing on to God’s Thumb.
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About 35 minutes’ drive from Lincoln City, Drift Creek Falls is a unique waterfall hike. A suspension footbridge allows hikers to walk right across a deep ravine containing the waterfall, for a unique up-close view of the falls.