Twisted trees
Rings and spirals.
Man77 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Victor Gleim — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Aldis Dzenovskis — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Chuprinka83 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Юлия Антонова — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Dancing Forest is a pine forest on the Curonian Spit in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, about 35 km from the town of Zelenogradsk in a straight line, known for its strangely twisted trees. The trunks curl into rings, hearts and spirals bending to the ground, and nobody knows the exact cause. One theory blames caterpillars that damage the young shoots and bend the trunks, while a folk story says the forest follows the moving sands. The trees were planted in the 1960s. A wooden boardwalk winds between the trees, past trunks that loop around themselves and others that arch like bows, on sandy ground covered in pine needles. The Curonian Spit is a long strip of sand between the sea and the Curonian Lagoon, and a World Heritage Site. The visit is short; stay on the boardwalk and do not climb the trees. It fits easily into a day with the spit's high dunes. The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Russia, and non-Russian bank cards may not work, so read the current advice before you plan.
Rings and spirals.
Wooden.
Close by.
Curonian Spit, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia
Nobody knows for sure.
About an hour.