We Went Back After The Landslides | Ecola State Park

On a sunny December afternoon a few months ago, we went hiking on a quiet trail in Ecola State Park, but something didn't feel right. The ground was splitting, trees were leaning at strange angles, and the forest felt like something was off. We turned around that day, unsure if we were overreacting. Then the news came the next morning. The park was closed. And the reason? Landslides. A lot of people are curious about what happened and what the trail looks like now, so today we're going back to show you. As we walked in past the park closure signs, the familiar beauty of Ecola glowed in the afternoon sunlight. Despite being closed for months, for the inhabitants of the park, today was just another usual day. All right, so anybody who's been following us for like about a month or so, you might remember we posted a video talking about landslides and the closure of Ecola State Park on the Oregon coast. Well, we're back. A lot of people said they'd love to see the afters, and we decided to come back. Right away, there is tons of evidence of a landslide. Giant sitka spruces that have downed crossing the trails. There's been a lot of evidence of some turbulence here. The mountain is reforming and reshaping as nature has a habit of doing. Yeah, we're going to keep an eye on the trail. If anything looks dangerous, we're not going to go, but we are going to get close enough to see how much the trail has changed, if we can. So let's go down and take a look. Let's go. All right. As we made our way down the trail and over fallen trees, the raw edge of the landslide loomed above us, what geologists call a scarp. The steep, freshly torn face marking where the hillside broke loose. We stopped for a moment to watch a woodpecker who was hard at work chiseling dozens of holes into a nearby tree. Watch your step. A great deal of the slope above the beach has lost its cohesion, and whole sections are shearing off and folding downward. What we were seeing wasn't exactly random. It was active mass wasting in real time. The tension in the soil up top made sense now. This hillside was reorganizing itself, which is a very common occurrence in Ecola State Park. As the park was built long before they realized how unstable the ground underneath it was. All right, so we're out at Crescent Beach. One of the few benefits of having the park closed to the general public and all cars, it's a little more remote, a little more isolated. It feels really cool. The dogs loving it. As you can see, some spots like right here, very clearly there was a landslide recently. So definitely some obvious signs of a landslide. So there was already a landslide going on over that way, but it looks like there's some fresh areas. The trail really wasn't that bad. No. I mean, I'm sure the precaution has been a lot about the cars that drive on the roads. Right. Definitely seeing cracks in those roads. Let's go keep exploring. Yeah. Even with everything shifting above us, the tide pools were doing what they've always done, with sea stars clinging to the rocks and anemones swaying with the waves, completely unbothered. It's fascinating how nature continues to go about its usual business despite the uncertain landscape. As we made our way, we looked up at the large fractures in the ground on the park's usually popular overlook. These cracks are called tension fractures and they're early warning signs that gravity is winning. That's the strange thing about places like this. The very geology that makes it so pretty here is the same thing that will eventually sweep it away. It's a beautiful site and completely natural, but obviously a bit dangerous. So admiring it from afar is often your safest bet. In the end, the ocean and land decides what stays and what doesn't. And coastlines like this are never finished. They're constantly being carved and reshaped and landslides aren't rare here. They're simply part of the process. What feels sudden to us is often years in the making. Enclosures like this aren't about restriction. They're about respecting that the land needs to do its thing. So for now, we'll enjoy the trails while we have them. And thank you for joining us on this adventure. We'll see you next week.