Cannon Beach in Oregon: An Amazing Place to Visit

I grew up in Oregon, and we spent a lot of time at Cannon Beach. All of kids would spend hours playing in the ocean, building sand castles on the beach, attempting to boogie board, riding horses on the sand, climbing Haystack and more than once coming VERY close to having to be rescued off that same rock!

Fast forward MANY years and I still find myself looking forward to visiting Cannon Beach as much as I did as a child! The only difference is that it now takes more like 5 hours to drive there instead of 1 and now I am in the front seat answering "how much longer" instead of sitting in the back asking it!

WHAT MAKES CANNON BEACH SO SPECIAL

Cannon Beach is located on the north Oregon Coast 80 miles west of Portland and 25 miles south of Astoria. It has beautiful sandy beaches, Haystack Rock along with the smaller Needles, tide pools, beach combing, bird watching, scuba diving, body surfing, marine animals, horseback riding and kite flying ~ at this is all just on the beach!

In town there are art galleries (over 20), bakeries, toy stores, book stores, gift shops, markets, candy stores, boutiques, and restaurants serving everything from oyster shooters to pronto pups to full coarse dinners to sushi!

THE BEACH

Cannon Beach has been chosen as one of the top beaches in the United States by the Travel Channel. This is something many of us have always known!

When I moved to Washington, people told me the beaches were the same as in Oregon. They couldn't have been more wrong! Cannon Beach front is sand, not rocks, not grass, just miles ~ over 10 actually ~ of sand! You will of course find driftwood but 99% of the area is sand. I like that!

You can walk along the beach at low tide and find a variety of shells. We always are looking for (and finding)sand dollars which we have ranging in sizes from smaller than a dime to quite large. We find a lot of them broken but are usually lucky enough to find a few whole ones as well.