Serious Surprises of an Oregon Coast Village: Neskowin
Published 02/09/2013
(Neskowin, Oregon) – Just a few miles south of sometimes-bustling Pacific City, and about 15 minutes from Lincoln City, one tiny little village hosts an extraordinary amount of surprises. In fact, Neskowin is so tiny it's barely even a village, it's more of a semi-incorporated grouping of homes and a few lodgings, with only a store and maybe a restaurant.
Wander onto this beach, however, and at first it seems like your run-of-the-mill romantic spot. But there's more – a lot more.
From the parking lot it's a short walk to the beach and its slightly unusual dark grains of sand, plus enough driftwood to make yourself a decent fire.
Proposal Rock is the intriguing blob-like structure sitting in front of you, boasting a small forest sitting on top. There's a sizable creek between you and it, however, and to get to the structure means crossing this cold body of water barefoot.
Atop the rock, there are some hidden trails meandering through the forest where the views are somewhat legendary. Watch the tide closely or you could get stranded, and be careful of the trail's slippery entrance.
There's a fascinating little detail hidden here. Near the entrance, look for a small, round brass plaque, an oddity embedded there early in the century. It seems to indicate there was a power line attached to Proposal Rock at one point.
Between here and the looming cliffs of Cascade Head sit another major wonder: the Ghost Forest of Neskowin. This is an ancient stand of trees between 1,000 to 2,000 years old, preserved beneath the sands by some sort of event that covered them, thus hiding them from the decaying effects of oxygen.
They do indeed look a bit ghostly: slightly eerie shadows of a formerly glorious forest. How they got that way is a bit eerie as well. One major theory is that the landscape changed slowly and covered them with sand, thus killing them, but paradoxically preserving them. Another more ominous theory scientists are talking about is that a major earthquake made the land drop abruptly as much as 30 feet – a frightening reminder of the destructive power of this region's earthquake possibilities.
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