Northwest Part IV – Cannon Beach

The next stop on our Northwest vacation was Cannon Beach, Oregon, where the famous landmark is Haystack Rock – a seastack that stands 235 feet above the water. Before stopping in the town, we first went to Ecola State park which had an overlook of the beach and landscape. This little park had a bunch of paths that you could take to the overlook point, or down through the woods to the water. To get down to beach level was a very steep hill – really more of a dirt cliff. The view from there wasn’t of Cannon Beach, but a distant lighthouse could be seen from there.

Cannon Beach and the surrounding landscape as seen from Ecola State Park.

The view you can see by trekking down to beach level at Ecola State Park.

My brother and a weirdly shaped tree.

We then drove the short distance to the small town, which was very nice. From there, we ventured down to the beach for a closer view of Haystack Rock. Even though the weather was cool and dreary, the beach was still very crowded and there were people swimming. The rock itself was magnificent – it’s difficult to tell how large it is from the photos, but just trust me, it’s huge.

Haystack rock as (kind of) seen from Cannon beach. Obviously, the reflection is not that perfect, but I thought copying and rotating the top gave the image an interesting, abstract look.