Tag: ghosts

ghost tree stumps in the ocean

Ghosts on the beach

iampotassium

A few weeks ago, Cobalt and I visited one of the ghost forests along the PNW coast. These forests were formed as a result of the great Cascadia earthquake on January 26, 1700 (super interesting story for how they figured out that date). During the quake, pieces of forests along the coast dropped away and the trees found their roots in salt marshes. These trees don’t like salty water, so they died, leaving behind eerie tree skeletons that remain to this day.

A tree trunk on a beach. There's a puddle around the trunk, in which you can see the reflection of alive trees on the hill behind the beach.
A ghost tree far below the rest of the forest, which stayed away from that pesky salt water.

I first found out about ghost forests from reading Sandi Doughton’s book “Full Rip 9.0” and I’ve been obsessed with them ever since. Unfortunately, the closest ghost forest to Cobalt and me requires a boat to get to it, so we haven’t visited that one yet. The easiest ghost forest to get to in the area is the Neskowin Ghost Forest because it’s just hanging out on Neskowin Beach on the coast of Oregon. Anyone who’s willing to cross a shallow creek can see those ghost trees. So when Cobalt and I decided to take a vacation to the Oregon coast, I made sure we paid them a visit.

Two tree stumps on a beach
Cobalt and I liked these two because they look kind of like ghosts!

This ghost forest is interesting because apparently the trees were completely buried until the epic 1997-1998 storm season exposed them. Now they host an assortment of mussels and barnacles, and sometimes even tide pools, so it’s double fun — see the ghost forest AND sea stars (can you find the sea star in the top photo?).

the top of a tree stump covered in barnacles and mussels

Cobalt and I got there just after low tide and spent the next hour or so meandering through the forest and searching for crabs (crab pictures coming soon). The weather was perfect: cool and misty, which made our ghost forest experience even more creepy. It was unfortunately pretty crowded, despite it being 8 a.m. on a Thursday. I guess everyone was excited about ghost forests and/or tide pools.

A tree stump rises out of the beach
I think this one looks kind of like a moray eel. :)
A tree stump on a beach with a green hill behind it
Cobalt and I liked this one because it looks like a face.

A tree stump on a beach

This was not the first ghost forest we’ve seen. We found our first one on accident. In 2019, Cobalt and I were exploring the area of Alaska near Anchorage and we drove past the Girdwood ghost forest. This ghost forest is much newer than the Neskowin ghost forest though, it was formed during an earthquake in 1964.

White tree trunks rising out of a green marsh, snow capped mountains in the background
Cobalt was driving so I snapped this picture from the car. These trees look like skeletons to me, rising out of the marsh.