When people think of the Oregon Coast, Cannon Beach almost always comes to mind. It’s instantly recognizable, thanks to Haystack Rock, the famous 235-foot seastack jutting out of the ocean. Plus, it’s a beautiful, clean coastal town with charming shops and cafes.
A perfect day at Cannon Beach includes tidepooling at Haystack Rock, shopping and dining in Old Town, and watching the sun set at Indian Beach at Ecola State Park. Optional activities include watching glassblowing, viewing the flowers on Hemlock Street, looking for bunnies at Tolovana Beach, and hiking to the viewpoint to see the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
I’m Cheryl, and Cannon Beach is my favorite beach on the Oregon Coast! My husband and I spent 8 days driving along the Coast and explored as many beaches as we could. We’ve been writing travel guides for how to visit the West since 2020 and have helped over 20,000 travel groups have incredible trips. We also have a YouTube channel with over 600 videos.
I can’t wait to share with you exactly what we did to have a perfect day at Cannon Beach.
Cannon Beach is both a beach and a town…and it’s worth it to check out both. Cannon Beach (the beach) is one of the prettiest beaches you will ever see, with several sea stacks dramatically protruding from the water.
I divide the town into three distinct areas: Haystack Rock, Old Town, and Tolovana. It’s only 3-4 miles long, end to end, so it is technically walkable. However, we drove our car to each of these areas and explored on foot from there.
Haystack Rock is where you actually walk out to the beach and look at the sea stacks. You can also bike and tidepool here (more on that later!)
Old Town is the shopping district of Cannon Beach. It’s pretty much one street, Hemlock Street, and is small enough to park your car once and explore on foot. There are art galleries, specialty shops, and tons of great food. There are no big box stores or chains here. Pretty much all the places to stay and shop are small, locally owned businesses, which add to its charm.
Tolovana Beach is another beach area that is popular because bunnies live in the park.
Ecola State Park, home of Indian Beach, is ~10 minutes from Cannon Beach. It’s a less touristy beach with beautiful views and lots of ferns and wildflowers.
FUN FACT: The name Cannon Beach comes from an actual cannon. In 1846, the U.S. Navy schooner Shark wrecked while crossing the Columbia River Bar. One of its cannons washed ashore near Arch Cape, just south of town. Locals eventually adopted the name “Cannon Beach” to commemorate the discovery.
This itinerary is perfect for the first-time visitor because it will get you to the very best sites of Cannon Beach. It offers iconic stops like Haystack Rock, hidden gems like bunnies at Tolovana Beach, and wonderful nature at Ecola State Park. Plus, some great places to eat.
The temperatures at Cannon Beach are moderate and don’t drastically change throughout the year. The high rarely goes over 70 degrees and the lows rarely go below 40 degrees. Summer is the most popular time to visit and it’s when you are most likely to get sunshine. It’s common for coastal towns to have grey skies and lots of rain, but it’s less likely in the summer months.
That being said, people visit Cannon Beach year-round. It’s only 90 minutes from Seattle and is a popular weekend getaway. If you visit in the winter, most of the shops and restaurants should be open, but may close earlier in the day.
As far as the best time of day to visit, Haystack Rock is the most popular site and the Haystack Rock Parking Lot (corner of Hemlock Street and Gower Street in Cannon Beach, Oregon) can fill early in the morning. We arrived at 7:30 am and there were a few parking spots left.
However, when you are visiting a coastal town, your schedule needs to revolve around the tides. Haystack Rock is best seen at low tide, which may not be first thing in the morning. I would arrive 1.5- 2 hours before low tide to give you time to find parking and not be rushed.
DON’T MISS: 13 Absolute Best Things To Do On Your Oregon Coast Road Trip (+ Where to Eat)
ABOUT THE TIDES: When you visit the Oregon Coast beaches, it’s important that you understand that many things revolve around the tides. If you want to tidepool (see sea creatures), you must visit at low tide. If you want to see sea spouts, high tide is the time to view them. Going at the wrong time of day will completely ruin your experience. It’s easy to look up the tides online or many of the touristy areas have a printed tide chart you can pick up.
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Now you know about Cannon Beach, now it’s time to explore it! Here is my ideal itinerary and I’ve grouped it by activities that are close to each other to reduce driving around, but make sure to adjust it based on 1) tide times, 2) your preferences. Let’s go!
Let’s start the day by visiting the #1 reason people visit Cannon Beach, Haystack Rock. Park your car at Haystack Rock Parking Lot (corner of Hemlock Street and Gower Street in Cannon Beach, Oregon) and walk 1/2 a mile to Haystack Rock. Make sure to bring a jacket and binoculars.
You will be in awe when you see this 235-foot basalt sea stack jutting out of the ocean! It’s so big I thought it was a mountain the first time I saw it. There will most likely be dozens of other people here, but it’s a big place and you should easily be able to see everything you want to see.
WHAT IS A SEA STACK? A sea stack is a tall, steep, isolated column of rock that stands just offshore, separated from the mainland by the relentless work of the ocean. They are dramatic and photogenic and are wonderful sanctuaries for wildlife, including seabirds like puffins and black oystercatchers, and marine life like sea stars.
Watch the birds as they come and go from Haystack Rock. There are hundreds of them and it’s really cool to watch. This is why you’ll want to bring your binoculars. If you are lucky, you might even see a puffin!
If you visit at low tide (and you should make this a priority), you will see all sorts of intertidal sea creatures, including sea stars, anenomes, crabs, and sea cucumbers. It’s crazy that these creatures can live outside of water for up to 6 hours at a time and be fine, as long as people aren’t stepping on them.
When we visited, there were volunteers there keeping people off the rocks and teaching about marine life. It was wonderful and really enhanced our experience.
FUN FACT ABOUT SEA STARS: Sea stars are predators and eat mussels. They eat the mussel by using the suction-cup-like tube feet on their underside to pry open the mussel’s shell, even if just a crack. They then eject their stomach through their mouth, placing the stomach over the mussel’s soft tissues to digest them externally with enzymes. The dissolved food is then absorbed by the sea star’s stomach and pulled back into its body.
After we saw Haystack Rock, we walked back into town and rented recumbent bikes from Funcycles. These low-to-the-ground trikes were perfect for cruising along the beach and enabled us to see even more sea stacks than Haystack Rock. There was a little bit of a learning curve, but we figured it out fast.
A recumbent bike rental is for 90 minutes and costs ~$35. No reservation was needed. You can only ride these types of bikes on the beach at low tide. Other bikes are available to cruise around town. They also have bike trailers and children’s bikes if you are traveling with kids.
You can ride these bikes out to Haystack Rock if you want. We just chose not to because we wanted to ride our bikes the whole 90 minutes and see more sea stacks.
Before you leave the Haystack Rock area, make sure to check out IceFire Glassworks. A married couple runs this place and you can watch them actually make the glass sculptures. They aren’t on a strict schedule, but they usually blow glass Wednesday through Sunday until noon. They’ll tell you what they are doing as they make the creations. They taught us how the temperature of the flame will affect the color the piece becomes and that they make many of the tools they use. The husband has been doing it for 50 years and the wife has been doing it for 30 years. The process of them creating the glass is just magical. It’s like a dance and they work in perfect synchronization.
There are also all sorts of amazing glass creations in the gallery. We loved the octopus and puffin and were blown away that such complex sculptures were able to be created by blowing glass.
Most people drive their car to Old Town from here. There are a few parking lots and we noticed that one of the best lots was behind the library. But, we chose to walk to Old Town because it was only a mile and the homes of Cannon Beach are charming.
As you walk along Hemlock Street to Old Town, you’ll see beautifully manicured yards with some of the prettiest flowers you’ll ever see.
Cannon Beach has so many great places to eat, you’ll wish your tummy were bigger! There are many great restaurants to choose from, but we chose Pizza a’fetta. It’s been around for years and has been voted one of the top 50 pizza places in the USA! Their crust is absolute perfection; soft and chewy on top and then crispy on the bottom, and strong enough to keep the slice from getting all bendy when you eat it.. You can order pizza by the slice (only $5) or get a whole pie.
For dessert, we tried Bruce’s Candy Kitchen. It’s absolutely delightful, from the unique pink and white exterior to the aisles filled with colorful candy on the interior.
Their taffy wrapping machine was a real highlight- wrapping over 140 pieces of taffy a minute. Plus, every treat I tried in here was spectacular, especially the chili-mango taffy. Of course, they have chocolate, fudge, and all sorts of other specialty candy.
Depending on how much you like to shop, you could spend an hour to half a day exploring the art galleries and boutique shops. We saw a soap store, a toy store, and even a yarn store.
Now that you’ve had a meal and done some shopping, it’s time for some nature. You’ll take the 10-minute drive to Ecola State Park, where you will see a beautiful rainforest filled with ferns and flowers, an amazing viewpoint, and a secluded beach with sea stacks and driftwood forts. You might even see deer or elk.
Ecola State Park is popular and there can be lines to get in and full parking lots, but this tends to be less of a problem if you visit later on in the day. Head to the Ecola Point parking lot. There is a short, paved, accessible walking path that will give you views of Haystack Rock and Crescent Beach below. There are picnic tables here if you wish to have a meal with a view.
IMPORTANT: It’s common to have to pay ~$12 to park your car at several spots along the Oregon Coast, including Ecola State Park. If you are on a road trip and want to see several sites, pick up the Oregon Pacific Coast Passport. It’s a multi-agency day-use passport that covers entry or day-use fees at dozens of federal fee sites (Forest Service, National Parks Service, and Bureau of Land Management) and Oregon State Park sites along Highway 101 and the Siuslaw National Forest. A 5-day pass costs ~$12 and can be purchased at the state parks
Next, head over to Indian Beach. There’s a short boardwalk down to the beach that is not accessible. It has several stairs, but it is a nice path. At the beach, you’ll see sea stacks and plenty of locals building campfires on the beach and roasting hot dogs. You’ll also see driftwood forts and seastacks. It’s a wonderful spot to enjoy a sunset. We probably spent 40 minutes walking along the beach, just enjoying the views.
FUN FACT: If you are a fan of Twilight, Indian Beach is where Jacob and Bella walked along the beach in New Moon.
We usually only eat out once a day when we travel, but the food at Cannon Beach is so good, we made an exception! Feel free to go check out another restaurant you saw in town, or try some of these.
Campfire at the beach. You may want to pack your own food and either eat a picnic at Ecola Point or roast hot dogs on the beach. Make sure to check if there are burn bans and understand beach fire rules when visiting.
Tom’s Fish and Chips. This restaurant isn’t in Old Town and is really good. We loved their fish tacos but regretted not trying their catch of the day, sturgeon! Plus, we loved that our food was ~$12 instead of the typical $20 we spend per meal when we travel. They also serve salad and burgers.
The Driftwood Restaurant and Lounge. We haven’t had a chance to eat here yet, but it always has a crowd and stays open later than most restaurants. It’s a steakhouse that is highly rated, and they have outdoor seating.
Bunnies at Tolovana Beach and dinner at Mo’s Seafood and Chowder. We love to look for bunnies at the Tolovana Park near Mo’s Seafood and Chowder. There are dozens of them and it’s so cute to watch them eat the flowers in the grass. While you are there, you might as well have dinner at Mo’s. People love to hate on this restaurant and there are a few Mo’s you can eat at on the Oregon Coast, but we thought their chowder and shrimp alfredo were great and their restaurants are always in a spot that will have great views of the ocean.
GOOD TO KNOW: Most restaurants on the Oregon Coast close early. It’s rare to see one open later than 8:00 pm. Plan accordingly.
Coaster Theatre Playhouse. We haven’t yet been to this playhouse (next time…), but we love to go to local theaters when we travel. The Coaster Theatre has a 4.7 rating and we did check the theater out. It looks like a great way to spend an evening. They have about 6 shows a year and tickets range from $30-$35. You can purchase online in advance, but the employee at the ticket booth told me they often have walk-up tickets available.
Pinky’s Kite Factory. Here is another stop that isn’t in Old Town, but if you are into kites, you’ll want to check this out. The owner doesn’t work regular hours but leaves a handwritten sign on the door for you to give him a call if you want to visit. My mother-in-law enjoyed her visit here.
Hike to Tillamook Rock Lighthouse Viewpoint. This is an option at Ecola State Park. The Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, aka Terrible Tilley, is a lighthouse located on an island about 1.5 miles off the shore. It’s abandoned and has a reputation for being haunted. You can’t go to this lighthouse, but you can hike to a viewpoint to see it. We could see it in the distance at Cannon Beach, so we didn’t do this hike.
When to Start Your Day: If you don’t want to worry about parking (especially at Haystack Rock and Ecola State Park), around 8 am or after 5 pm is your best bet.
But, check the tide schedule to make sure you visit Haystack Rock at low tide
What to Wear: Shoes that you feel comfortable walking on the beach in,
a rain jacket, and maybe even a sweatshirt.
What to Bring: An extra pair of shoes and socks, in case your feet get wet, and binoculars.
Check out our recommended gear for what we use.
Road Conditions: The roads are paved and drivable in a regular car
Cell Phone Service: Most cell phones have service here, including in Ecola State Park
Bring Your Doggo: Cannon Beach (the city) is very dog-friendly. Leashed dogs are allowed in
Ecola State Park. Dogs are also permitted at
Cannon Beach (the beach) and are not required to be leashed.
.
I’ve given you some ideas of places to eat throughout the day, but here’s a quick list. If you want more recommendations, check out our article 15 Best Places to Eat on the Oregon Coast (Seafood, Views & More).
| Island Grinds Coffee and Juice | Amazing acai bowls |
| Driftwood Restaurant and Lounge | Steakhouse with outdoor seating that is open later than most restaurants in town |
| Bruce’s Candy Kitchen | Saltwater taffy, fudge, chocolate, and everything in between |
| Mo’s Seafood and Chowder (most Oregon Coast Towns) | People love to hate on this place, but there are always great views of the ocean and we thought their clam chowder was great! |
| Tom’s Fish and Chips (Cannon Beach) | Inexpensive and had amazing fish tacos |
| Pizza a’fetta (Cannon Beach and Seaside) | Ranked in the top 50 pizza places in the country! Crust is perfect- soft and crunchy at the same time. Buy a whole pie or by the slice. |
We actually don’t recommend staying in Cannon Beach. There are some small hotels and B&Bs available, but they are expensive. The nearby town of Seaside is only 12 minutes away. It offers a much greater variety of places to stay, including several resorts directly on the beach. We were able to visit Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Astoria from this home base.
We stayed at the Sandy Cove Inn (book here). Each of their rooms is themed (~$160 a night), and they have 18. We stayed in room number 23—the Garden Room. It’s pretty cute and it wasn’t too expensive. It’s been family-owned since 2007 and the building has been here since, I believe, the 1940s. That’s really common for lodging along the coast—a lot of the places are pretty old. But they have flowers hanging outside, and the guy working at the front desk was really nice; it had a very homey feel to it. No breakfast, but they have games and beach equipment you can borrow.
FIND OUT: Seaside vs Cannon Beach: Which Oregon Coast Town Should You Visit?
Our one day in Cannon Beach was just part of our epic, 21-day Pacific Northwest road trip, where we explored Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, the Columbia River Gorge, and the Oregon Coast! It was absolutely amazing. Check out our articles and YouTube videos for tips on how to make this trip happen for yourself. If you really want to make planning your trip easy, check out our travel guides! Hope you make it to the Oregon Coast soon!
What We Wish We Knew Before Visiting the Oregon Coast
One PERFECT DAY at Crater Lake National Park (+ Where to Stay and Eat)
13 Absolute Best Things To Do On Your Oregon Coast Road Trip (+ Where to Eat)
Quick and Easy Guide to Hiking in Mount Rainier
A Perfect 6 Day Itinerary for Olympic (For First Timers)
Columbia River Gorge Itinerary
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