Welcome to Cannon Beach, Oregon!

Yep, my title is quoting a line from the 1985 cult film “The Goonies”. And why, you may ask? Well, that’s because I just returned from a marvelous vacation with my mom to Cannon Beach, Oregon, where the concluding scene in “The Goonies” was filmed. Haystack Rock, clearly visible in that scene, is Cannon Beach’s most famous landmark.

Haystack Rock – this is my favorite picture I took in Cannon Beach.

My family and I have traveled to Cannon Beach two previous times in my life, but only for short day visits. Mom always wanted to return and actually spend some time in Cannon Beach, so to celebrate both our birthdays, we finally achieved our goal of spending a long weekend in the beautiful seaside town. The Pacific Northwest is one of my favorite regions to visit. I don’t think I could spend year-round there with the damp weather, but I LOVE to visit. Oregon and Washington are seriously some of the most beautiful places you will ever visit! The rain makes the landscape so green and vibrant, it’s breathtaking!

Not the best picture to illustrate Oregon’s lush forest scenery, but it was one of the few I took during our drive to the coast.

I flew to Portland, Oregon late Thursday night (April 19) from Los Angeles, and mom flew to Portland from Kansas City. We met up at the airport at the lovely hour of midnight, and stayed the night at a nearby hotel. The next morning, after exploring downtown Portland for a couple hours (will post more on that in my next entry), we drove the 70 miles to Cannon Beach. Due to it’s close proximity to Portland, Cannon Beach is a popular getaway destination for Portlanders. But since my mom and I were traveling before summer vacation, we were treated to a quiet retreat. And due to the amazing weather Oregon happened to have that weekend, we were lucky to spend the weekend in sun and 70 degrees!

This is a beautiful creek we stumbled upon during our drive to the coast, at a rest stop of all places, called Sunset Springs.

The photos do not do this place justice, and the sound of the flowing water was so tranquil.

On our drive to Cannon Beach, we found the same restaurant our family ate at back in 2002 when we traveled to the coast of Oregon.

I had forgotten all about this place until we saw it again.

We arrived at our amazing hotel in the afternoon. The Ocean Lodge was situated right on the beach about a mile or less from Haystack Rock. We had an ocean view room with a balcony and a fireplace, and we spent the nights with the doors open and the fire on, listening to the waves crashing and the warmth of the fire taking away the night chill. Not to brag too much or anything, but it was amazing!

Wonderful hotel!

The Ocean Lodge

Ocean Lodge lobby

The hotel had an endless cookie jar…I definitely took advantage of it!

View of the beach from our balcony

After settling into our room Friday night, we drove into downtown Cannon Beach for dinner. We explored the town for a little while, until our tummies were ready for food. We chose The Bistro for dinner, and the food was excellent. With the ocean breeze causing a chill in the air, The Bistro’s Italian cuisine and wine provided the perfect meal.

Downtown Cannon Beach

So charming!

Cannon Beach does not allow any chain retailers, so it retains that small town feel. I love it!

The Bistro – our first night restaurant choice

The Bistro – so quaint and charming!

Mom enjoying some Moscato

and me too!

View of the sunset from our balcony

Saturday morning we enjoyed a lovely breakfast provided by the hotel, before walking along the beach. We decided to be adventurous and walk the beach to downtown Cannon Beach. It ended up being farther then we thought, but walking a beach is not a common experience of ours so we enjoyed our day.

Our hotel was right on the beach!

Starting our walk along the beach

Still a little bit of the morning haze to burn off

Mom and I with Haystack Rock in the background

We made it to the other side of Haystack

These are called “the needles”, next to Haystack

We chose Sweet Basil’s for lunch and it was a delicious choice. It was another quaint bistro with that perfect small town vibe. We decided we wanted to come back here for dinner as well.

After doing some more shopping and exploring, we decided to walk back to our hotel.

We had to find a way down to the beach during our walk back from town

Haystack Rock and The Needles

Walking back to our hotel

Haystack Rock…again!

Dinner at Sweet Basil’s was such a fun time! I highly recommend this restaurant if you ever visit Cannon Beach. The food was great, the live music was excellent, and the people were very hospitable! We didn’t want to leave!

Amazing little bistro! We wished we could have ate here another night!

Their live band was awesome! So much fun!

View of Haystack on our drive back at night

Sunday was our last day in Cannon Beach, so we had to get up early for low tide to get up close to Haystack Rock. Mom dragged me out of bed about 7:30am and we walked down the beach to Haystack and it was so cool to be able to walk next to Haystack Rock. It was amazing that the day before when we walked passed Haystack, the ocean separated us quite a bit. But this early in the morning with the water pushed back, we were free to roam the area mostly spent underwater. Of course, the Oregon Preservation people were out there to make sure visitors didn’t harm the environment, but you were still pretty free to walk around. Also, it was homecoming weekend for the Puffins! We didn’t get to see a puffin up close, but we did get to see several flying around the rock.

Good morning!

Low tide

Usually this is all under water, except at low tide (which is early in the morning and at night)

These early morning pictures were my favorite of Cannon Beach due to the crisp clear morning and soft light from the sun rising.

The water is so clear!

We were able to get pretty close to the rock

The starfish are only seen at low tide

Another favorite photo – these rocks are usually in the water.

Waves and whirlpools around Haystack

At the very top of that rock you can faintly see the outline of a Puffin. That was the closest they landed to us. They pretty much stay on the west side (ocean side) of Haystack.

Waves coming in

View of the mountains from the beach

After exploring Haystack we returned to our hotel for a light breakfast. Then we checked out and drove into town to get crepes from this awesome crepe place we had spotted on Saturday. The crepes were amazing! Mom and I both ordered a sweet crepe of Nutella and bananas, but their savory crepes looked and smelled amazing as well! We kinda wished we would’ve ordered a savory crepe (meat, cheese, veggie filled).

After we enjoyed our crepes, we drove up to Ecola State Park. Here you get a view down at Cannon Beach, as well as Indian Cove and the Tillamook Lighthouse. Ecola is a beautiful park for hiking through the woods, but for this trip we didn’t have the time unfortunately.

A view of Cannon Beach in the distance from Ecola State Park

You can see Haystack Rock in the back

Love this picture! Seriously, the Oregon coast is one of my favorite places I’ve traveled to!

This area is known as Sea Lion Rocks

Don’t look down if you are afraid of heights!

Sea Lion Rocks

Indian Cove

Tillamook Lighthouse – I’m very curious how this lighthouse was built!

After we left Ecola, we drove the 20 miles up to Astoria for the afternoon. My post about Astoria will be continued in my next entry! I hope you enjoyed my trip to Cannon Beach! Mom and I would love to make it a yearly trip. It truly is that lovely of a place to visit! You should definitely visit and stay at the Ocean Lodge!!