The Neskowin ‘Ghost Forest’ is the petrified remains of a 2,000-year-old Sitka spruce forest found along the coast of Oregan in the United States.
Described as ‘one of the eeriest and most fascinating natural phenomena in Oregon’ the forest was once buried by an earthquake.
The tops of the stumps were then exposed when massive storms swept away sand in the northern hemisphere’s winter of 1997–1998.
According to The Oregonian ‘Some locals attest that the forest was visible for decades, but it didn’t gain popularity until the winter of 1997-1998, when storms pummeled the coast and uncovered some of the trees.’
The 100 or so stumps can be seen year-round during low tide and exceptionally low tides reveal even more than usual of the petrified forest.
To find the forest from the Neskowin Beach parking lot, visitors need to walk along the beach past Proposal Rock (in a southerly direction) and cross a small stream and then the stumps will be visible rising out of the sand.
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