Stay Eat Events Weather Beaches

The Ghosts Near Waldport / Seal Rock Beneath These Oregon Coast Sands - Video

Published 07/12/22 at 5:39 AM PST
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

The Ghosts Near Waldport / Seal Rock Beneath These Oregon Coast Sands - Video

Latest Coastal Lodging News Alerts
In Seaside:
Includes exclusive listings; some specials in winter
In Cannon Beach:
Includes rentals not listed anywhere else
In Manzanita, Wheeler, Rockaway Beach:
Some specials for winter
In Pacific City, Oceanside:
Some specials for winter
In Lincoln City:
Some specials for winter
In Depoe Bay, Gleneden Beach:
Some specials for winter
In Newport:
Look for some specials
In Waldport
Some specials for winter
In Yachats, Florence
Some specials for winter
Southern Oregon Coast Hotels / Lodgings
Reedsport to Brookings, places to stay; winter deals

(Waldport, Oregon) – Two fun but unassuming beach spots near Waldport and Newport are actually even more fascinating than you may think. On the central Oregon coast, along a stretch of highway lined by wind-bent trees, as you pass between Newport and Waldport there's some engaging geologic science lurking beneath those sands. (Above: ghost forest near Seal Rock, Curtis St. You can even see 18 million-year-old bedrock in the background.All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

Just south of Newport's South Beach, you'll soon encounter Lost Creek State Recreation Site. A few more miles south you bump into Seal Rock State Wayside. With both, there's more than meets the eye – especially in some winters when rarely-seen ghost forests are revealed.

Lost Creek is a pleasant respite of central Oregon coast sands, with a wide beach that's soft and full of selfie moments in the making. Seal Rock is the tiny town and bundle of seastacks along with other geologic wonders, a place that's truly dramatic during winter storms. Parts of it are soft and sandy while others are craggy and even surreal. BELOW: VIDEO OF THE LOST CREEK GHOST FOREST

Just north of Seal Rock, at the Curtis St. exit, is where the ghostie fun begins. It's here and at Lost Creek where some winters reveal these 4,000-year-old secrets. But not every year. Many winter seasons, the sand levels just don't get low enough in these two spots.

There are also occasionally ghost forests at Thiel Creek, a hidden access just south of South Beach.

What's happened here?

You have to look at the research of Dr. Curt Peterson from Portland State University and Roger Hart about 2006. What they discovered was that about 4,000 years ago, a forest here got slowly swallowed up by sand and/or swamp conditions of some sort – slow, in human terms, but rather quickly in geologic terms. That could be a few years or a few decades.

Because of this getting swallowed up by sand, it choked the life out of the trees but preserved them by keeping them out of the elements. They remained beneath the sands of Lost Creek and Curtis St. until sand levels in recent decades started shifting more drastically in winter.

The result are two rather distinctive ghost forests, often different from the pilings-like stumps at Neskowin or the flattened out octopus-like shapes at Sunset Bay on the southern Oregon coast (near Coos Bay), or at Moolack Beach in Newport. You see these gnarled, hunched shapes dotting the beach, which look a lot like rocks, but they are wood.

The Curtis St. stumps look a tad more tortured than even those up north in Arch Cape. In the case of Lost Creek, they look downright puzzling – like an invention of artist Roger Dean, who did the Yes album covers.

Sadly, so far no publication in the northwest region has looked to Hart and Peterson about the origin of beach ghost forests, nor any real geologist, and they continue writing the same wrong theory over and over: that they came from a major quake. With sand-bound ghost forests, that's just not true. The younger ghost stumps found in most Oregon coast estuaries (which are harder to recognize) did come from that, or at least a major tsunami event. See Explanations of Neskowin Ghost Forest Wrong, Say Oregon Coast Geologists


Sunset Bay ghost forest, courtesy Brent Lerwill

Year-round ghost forest stumps that are thousands of years old can be seen at Sunset Bay, Neskowin and an example on display at Newport's Beverly Beach access.

Those 300-year-old or so examples slightly inland are harder to recognize but plentiful.

Hotels in Newport - Where to eat - Newport Maps and Virtual Tours


MORE PHOTOS BELOW






Booking.com

More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging.....

More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining.....


Coastal Spotlight


LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles

From Cape Disappointment Lighthouse with a Halo to Washington Coastal Storms ...
A meeting of weather phenomena and Oregon - Washington coast history. Astoria

Preview of an Oregon Coast Page-Turner: Florence Festival of Books in Sept
Saturday, September 28 with as many as 500. Florence events

Three Oregon Coast Wonders Bigger Than They Look: Lincoln County
Expansive finds at Seal Rock, Yachats, Depoe Bay and a surprise in Bandon

Tiny Ray of Hope as Pair of Sea Otter Seen on N. Oregon Coast After Being Ext...
Pair of sea otters at the northern edges of Cannon Beach on June 28. Marine sciences

Coming to Coos Bay: Celebrating Merci Train and Its History, Massive Oregon C...
Merci Train talk on July 18, weeks of classical music July 13 - 27. S. Coast events

Ethereal Thing at the Other End of Sunset You Don't Know About: Odd Oregon Co...
It dried up tourism and brought patrols to beaches. History, Seaside, Manzanita, Rockaway Beach, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Newport, Florence, Coos Bay, Brookings

Ice Cream Trains and Moonlight Excursions for Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad Rides
Ride into the sunset and the night through Garibaldi, Tillamook Bay, Rockaway Beach Wheeler. Tillamook events, Garibaldi events, Manzanita events

Video, Photos Dig Into Story Behind N. Oregon Coast's Reopened, Captivating T...
After about ten years of being closed off due to a major landslide. Oceanside, Pacific City


Back to Oregon Coast

Contact Advertise on Oregon Coast Beach Connection
All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright Oregon Coast Beach Connection. Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted