I truly love Cannon Beach, Oregon, a small beach town located west about a 90 minute drive from Portland. 

I think it is a great beach town and I know a bit about beach towns, having lived all my life (well almost) in or near a Lake Michigan beach town. I find our West Michigan beach towns hard to beat. 

But Cannon Beach is pretty nice. It is located on the Oregon coast which is is dramatic and gorgeous and worth a visit.  

 What is to like about Cannon Beach?

Well, the beach. It is wide and flat and dotted with huge rocks.The most famous is Haystack Rock. It’s a bit of an icon for Oregon as a whole.This sea stack rises 235 feet in the air and has been featured in iconic films like The Goonies. We rented a house right on the beach for great access at different times of the day. 

I was totally captivated with the water patterns and colors of sand.  The patterns really drew my eye.

The little town is darling with places to eat, to shop and to look at art. It is my kind of place. Nothing too big or fancy. Delicious food. Dogs everywhere. An abundance of cuteness.  Perfect for an extended weekend getaway.  

We were there during a recent Northern Lights showing.  I didn’t have a tripod and couldn’t remember the settings so I imply snapped a few photos. Here’s one that shows the colors. They were fantastic.  

I thoroughly enjoyed time with our little grandson on the beach, but will save the photos for a family photo book except this one. I rather like the reflections.  And how about the visiter to our deck?  He’s a brave and thirsty one.  

I suspect the town has an interesting history which I’ll have to explore another time. But read below. I did a “cut and paste” from the official Cannon Beach blog to share how the town got it’s name. How funny. I wonder if I visit again, I’ll spot a cannon on my beach walk? If I go back, I’ll visit the museum to see the  cannon and  I might look into the Historical Walking Tour that I saw advertised. I’m sure there are revealing stories to tell. 

Enjoy.  

The Cannons of Cannon Beach

A famous shark  earned a chapter in Cannon Beach history – specifically the USS Shark, a storied naval schooner that gave Cannon Beach its name. Launched in 1821, the Shark quickly built up quite a legacy. The ship and its crew claimed Key West for the United States, transported John James Audubon for wildlife study, suppressed the African slave trade in the West Indies, fought pirates, and sailed across the Atlantic to defend American interests in the Mediterranean.

In 1839 the USS Shark crossed the pond again to become the first U.S. Navy warship to pass through the Strait of Magellan for duty in the Pacific. Returning from an exploratory survey up the Columbia River, Shark met up with the full fury of the infamous Columbia River Bar. Strong winds, high seas, and a maelstrom of currents and tides at the river’s mouth sent Shark into the shoals, where it foundered and sank in September 1846.

The crew was saved and, as it turns out, so were some of its cannons. Sightings of the USS Shark cannons in the surf and sand swirled around for years, enough for an early settler to name the area Cannon Beach in 1891. One finally reappeared in the waters of Arch Cape Creek to great excitement in 1898; two more emerged out of the sand more than a century later, in  2008. Today visitors can view the first one at the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum, where a permanent exhibit shares the illustrious story of the  USS  Shark and its elusive Cannon Beach cannons.

Credit: Cannon Beach web site.