Cannon Beach

Cannon Beach is named for a ship's cannon that washed ashore in 1846 - before the town existed and the village that grew around the area has always had an arts-forward identity. The Haystack Rock, 235 feet tall and accessible on foot at low tide, hosts one of the Oregon coast's most productive tide pool ecosystems: sea stars, anemones, giant green anemones, hermit crabs, and limpets are visible without any equipment. Tufted puffins nest on the rock from April through July, viewable with binoculars. The Ecola State Park immediately north of town preserves old-growth Sitka spruce forest on headlands with views south to the beach and the distant Cape Disappointment lighthouse in Washington. Tolovana Beach to the south has Haystack Rock's "sister" sea stacks and somewhat fewer crowds. The Cannon Beach Gallery Group represents over a dozen working studios and galleries organized into walking-distance proximity. The Coaster Theatre Playhouse is a professionally run community theater operating year-round. Cannon Beach is particularly dramatic in winter when fog rolls in and storms push dramatic waves against the sea stacks a different mood from summer entirely.