Cannon Beach

Cannon Beach is six kilometres of sand on the northern Oregon coast, about ninety minutes west of Portland, with the town of the same name behind it. The beach is public in the fullest sense available anywhere in the United States: Oregon's Beach Bill of 1967 established public rights along the entire state coastline, and nothing here is enclosed.

It is known for a single object. Haystack Rock rises seventy-two metres out of the surf a few hundred metres offshore, close enough to walk to at low tide and large enough to dominate every photograph taken here. It is a marine garden and a protected seabird colony — tufted puffins nest on it between spring and midsummer — and the tide pools at its base are among the most accessible on the coast.

The shore is wide, flat, hard-packed quartz sand with a long tidal range, so the beach at low water is very large and at high water is not. The water is cold year-round, in the low teens Celsius at best, and the surf is serious. Sneaker waves and logs moving in the shallows are the two hazards the state warns about, and both are real.

The town behind the beach is small, deliberately low and free of chain signage by local ordinance. Galleries, bakeries and a handful of hotels sit within a few blocks of the sand; Ecola State Park at the north end has the viewpoints, and Arcadia and Hug Point are quieter beaches immediately south.

Haystack Rock stands seventy-two metres out of the sand and is a protected marine garden with puffins on it from spring. The tide decides whether you can walk to it and the rangers decide how close you get. The water is ten degrees, the wind is constant, and the town has banned neon signs since the 1970s.