As mentioned in my previous post, there are a few days, for a few set months, every year where you can experience super low tide. In these cases, the super low tide, also called minus tide, is often in the negative 1.5-2 foot range, revealing more then usual from what is usually hidden by the sea. These super low tides tend to occur across a 3-4 days during those few set months. In June, the first day of super low tide I spent exploring the sea stacks and tidepools by Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, as covered in detail before along with the other 24 hours I spent in the area. For the next super low tide, the plan was visiting Neskowin Ghost Forest.
Logistics
Neskowin Ghost Forest is located at Neskowin Beach in Neskowin. For visiting Neskowin Ghost Forest at super low tide, that may be early in the morning (around 7 am during my visit). Knowing that you want to be there at least an hour or so before that lowest point, you may want to stay over in Neskowin, or Lincoln City, or Pacific City, if you want to stay conveniently close and save the 2 hour drive from Portland. But, it is possible to make this a day trip too.
To get to the area, the best parking is at Neskowin Beach Recreation Site – there is a public free lot there as well as public restrooms. You’ll see across the street Neskowin Trading Company for deli and market needs though it may not be open yet depending how early you arrive. Note that on Saturdays during the late spring through summer on Saturdays there is a Neskowin Farmers Market nearby, which could be a pro as an additional activity after visiting the Neskowin Ghost Forest, or perhaps a con in more people and less parking. If the lot is full people park along the sides of US-101 around mile marker 97.
In order to get to the Neskowin Ghost Forest, you will need to wade across a shallow, cold Neskowin Creek that will at least be several inches deep. You should expect probably your whole foot up to your ankle to be submerged. You need to wear the appropriate shoes and clothes if you don’t want soggy pants and shoes. There is no path besides sand shortly after the entrance to the beach area, so naturally after you wade through, expect to collect lots of sand on your feet. There is a foot washing area right outside the parking lot restrooms, though sadly that was out of order during my visit in June 2021. If you cross closer to Proposal Rock it will be less rocky, but the creek is wider and can be deeper in some places (though not more then knee deep).
After crossing the creek, you will see some initial groupings of stumps – keep walking until you get to the larger group. The morning we did our visit, it was very foggy which made for a spooky atmospheric walk where we only heard the waves and visually the ghost forest suddenly appearing as we walked further, emerging mysteriously with more stumps in the distance as we approached closer.
History
The Neskowin Ghost Forest used to be a bit of an urban legend of stumps that appeared once every decade or so. Then, thanks to El Nino in 1997 and 1998, the storms eroded the coastline so that the Neskowin Ghost Forest is now revealed more consistently at low tide. 
Many sources say that the Sitka spruce forest became buried during the big January 26 1700 Cascadia earthquake of magnitude 8.7–9.2 on a scale of 10 that causes a tsunami and Japan and probably wiped out many Native American settlements on the Oregon Coast then. Neskowin Ghost Forest is one of about 30 ghost forests in Washington and Oregon) that helped discover the Cascadia fault line that is called the Cascadian Subduction Zone and attest to the history that these great earthquakes of magnitude 8 or higher happen about every 500 years, give or take.
On the other hand, this may not be true – some Oregon Coast geologists say this is completely incorrect, that although that is true of other ghost forests, Neskowin Ghost Forest was caused by gradual dune encroachment. 
Whatever the cause, the trees of Neskowin Ghost Forest are over 2,000 years old according to carbon dating, and were 150-200 feet tall and about 200 years old when they became buried. The way the stumps have been killed but also petrified by that same sand and sea has preserved them to some degree. Still, the power of the ocean is also at play and erosion is at work at these forest headstones – there are less stumps and less stumps over time now. During my research the count was provided by some that there were 200 stumps here, but I definitely saw less then that, and one source noted that 1/3 of the stumps have disappeared since their initial discovery after those big coastal storms 20 years ago.
Exploring the existing Neskowin Ghost Forest at low tide, you will find barnacles, mussels, sea anemones, sea stars, and other sea life (and leftovers of sea life, like crab shells) in the tidepools around the stumps, on the stumps, and sometimes even caught in the stump as if the stump is a bowl, waiting for the tide to return and release them back into the ocean. Some are so encrusted with the touch of the sea that you can barely tell they are trees – others you can still recognize as how they must have appeared hundreds and maybe a thousand or so years ago. 
You may also find some stumps that seem like they’ve been assaulted by humans and a sharp edge – it’s true. Apparently in 2008 some researchers took a buzzsaw to some stumps to take multiple core samples which was stopped and is very controversial between accommodating science and protecting the Neskowin Ghost Forest.
Proposal Rock
While you are here, you might as well circle around Proposal Rock as well. You might choose to do that after the visit to Neskowin Ghost Forest like we did, so you can get some of the eerie forest with less people. When we arrived around 6am only a few other people were there, but by 7:30 there were almost 100 people now on Neskowin Beach. Supposedly there is a trail that you can scamper up to go up Proposal Rock, but we didn’t notice it, and it’s a pretty steep rock and you’d have to be careful to not get trapped by the tide coming in surrounding the rock. The sunlight was slowly starting to appear through some of the fog so we watched the transformation of the rock as the marine layer cleared somewhat.
Instead we just enjoyed finding lil snails, and also hearing the crackle pop of the mussels all around the rock with their opening and closing, and you’ll find a few small tidepools of starfish, sea anemones, perhaps some sculpin and crab too. Be careful where you walk – look for solid sand, and don’t disturb the delicate sea creatures by physically harassing them. 
Have you heard about ghost forests, in the Pacific Northwest, or the Neskowin Ghost Forest before? 
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