USA/OR: Neskowin Beach State Park
An absolutely amazing piece of the Oregon coastline is at Neskowin Beach State Park. Here, a massive seastack/island named Proposal Rock stands just mere feet offshore and can be reached at low tide. The rock has massive granite walls and even a natural arch. But there’s more – the Neskowit Beach is known for its “ghost forest” – a series of old spruce tree stumps covered with barnacles that come out at low tide. This is also so surreal! These are the remnants of what used to be a forest of 200-foot trees. At low tide the remains are scattered in the sands on the southern side of the beach, the roughest and the most desolate. This “ghost forest” appeared after several violent storms of 1997/98. The stumps had been buried and preserved in the sand by the same event that destroyed the trees – likely an earthquake or tsunami, and then the storms unearthed them and barnacles covered them up.
