Neskowin in winter is a different town from Neskowin in July, and there are people, us among them, who like it more. The summer families are gone. The beach is huge and empty. Proposal Rock takes storm after storm. And at the lowest tides of the year, the Ghost Forest stands fully exposed in front of the town like something out of a myth. Here is what to expect if you come between November and March.
The weather, honestly
It rains. It blows. Highs sit in the mid-40s to low 50s. Storm systems arrive every few days from November through February, and between them you get gray, calm mornings, and occasionally a clear, cold, bluebird day that feels like a gift. Wind is the constant; Neskowin's beach is open to the southwest and a strong storm puts 50-mile-per-hour gusts on the sand.
None of that is a warning. It is the attraction. Pack a real rain shell, rubber boots, and wool, and the weather becomes scenery.
The Ghost Forest, at its best
The Neskowin Ghost Forest is a stand of Sitka spruce stumps, roughly two thousand years old, that were buried by a sudden drop of the land during a Cascadia earthquake and then preserved in sand and mud. Winter storms in the late 1990s scoured the beach and revealed them. There are around a hundred, some standing several feet tall, just south of Proposal Rock.
They are visible at most low tides, but winter is when they truly show. Storm scour strips sand from the beach and the lowest tides of the year, the negative tides paired with king tides, leave the stumps standing in open air with the surf behind them. Look up the tide table, find a tide at or below zero, and be on the beach an hour before it. Bring the camera. This is one of the strangest and most beautiful things on the Oregon Coast and in winter you may have it to yourself.
Storms and king tides
King tides, the highest tides of the year, arrive in a few multi-day windows between November and January. Paired with a big swell they push the ocean up Neskowin Creek and against the base of Proposal Rock in a way you will not see in summer. We wrote a whole guide to storm watching on the Oregon Coast; the short version is watch from high and back, stay off logs and rocks, keep the dog leashed near the water, and expect the power to flicker.
What is open
Neskowin is tiny and a few things go quiet in winter. Here is the honest rundown:
- Neskowin Trading Company, the market by the beach access, stays open year-round with groceries, wine, a deli, and coffee. It is the town's living room in winter.
- Hawk Creek Cafe next door serves breakfast, pizza, and dinner most days. Check hours, which shrink in the off-season.
- The farmers market is a summer thing. If you loved the Neskowin farmers market in August, it will be back in late spring.
- Neskowin Beach Golf Course generally closes for the wet months because the fairways flood. Manzanita's course, an hour north, stays open on drier days.
- Pacific City, fifteen minutes north, keeps Pelican Brewing, the Stimulus coffee shop, and the Cape Kiwanda area open all year. It is your rainy-day town.
- Lincoln City, twenty minutes south, is fully open with the outlets, restaurants, and the Finders Keepers glass float drop, which runs mid-October through Memorial Day and is a legitimately fun winter beach walk.
Whales
Gray whales migrate south past this coast from mid-December into January, and Oregon State Parks runs Whale Watching Week with volunteers at viewpoints around the holidays. Cascade Head and the pullouts along Highway 101 south of Neskowin are good spots. Bring binoculars and patience. Calm days after a storm are best; you are looking for spouts on the horizon.
Where to stay warm
Our cabin here, The Weekender, was made for this season. Two bedrooms for up to three people, a wood-burning stove, a hot tub on the deck, and the beach a few steps away. When the power goes out in a storm, and a few times each winter it does, the stove keeps the place warm and the tub holds its heat for hours. We stock the woodpile before the season. You bring the whiskey.
For groups larger than three, or a slightly livelier town, our Manzanita house is an hour north. The full list of what to do around here, in any weather, is on the Neskowin things-to-do page.
The winter Neskowin day
- Coffee from the Trading Company, walked to the beach.
- Ghost Forest at low tide, or storm watching from the deck at high.
- Cascade Head hike if the wind allows, or a drive to Pacific City for lunch at Pelican with the surf out the window.
- Stove lit by 4 p.m. It is dark by 5.
- Tub in the rain. Dinner. A book. Repeat tomorrow.
Winter Neskowin asks a little of you: a decent rain jacket, a tide table, and a willingness to be cold for twenty minutes at a time. In return you get the coast the way it was before anyone thought to sell it. That is a fair trade.