En Route
Most of Oregon’s coastal towns are transected by Highway-101. Visiting is just a matter of pulling over and parking. To explore any part of Cannon Beach you must make special effort by exiting the highway. But to even get to Cannon Beach is a three hour drive from where I live and we don‘t plan to stay over. It’ll be a long day.
Lines on the map reveal, in concept if not appreciated fact, the roads from cities in the Willamette Valley (Portland, Salem, Corvallis, Eugene) are for most of their length a single lane in each direction. While stretches may run straight there are twisted sections to all, and worse on some. What looks like a shortcut on the map might become a carnival ride of a drive, fun for passengers but exhausting for the driver. Some days seemingly everyone in the world competes for that same road space and movement becomes a kind of rush hour crawl. Often there’s someone who, for whatever reason (but mostly out of state plates reveal a lack of confidence stemming from unfamiliarity with the road), drives so slowly they end up dragging a string of bunched up cars. And you can’t pass because on-coming traffic is obscured by the topography of the Coastal Mountain Range. For all that they’re not very tall mountains a mountain road is still a mountain road. Then comes the Pacific Coast Highway (101), and although it runs straighter along its course all other rules still apply. There really aren’t any shortcuts.
There are a couple of ways of approaching such a trip. The first is to drive straight to the destination, arriving in a more timely, if somewhat stiffer, fashion. The second is to break up the drive with occasional stops. We usually do the later. Sometimes all the stops include favorites, sometimes they include places we haven’t seen in years, occasionally we discover something previously overlooked. Oregon provides lots of choices. And every place we stop this day smells great.
One place we tried to stop was Arcadia Beach State Recreation Site, 3-miles south of Cannon Beach, at a point where 101 runs close along the shore. Arcadia, I know from previous visits, has a number of interesting rock formations and an inviting sandy beach. However, it also lacks an empty parking space this day, so we move on. Another good thing about all those choices.
We return
Returning from Ecola State Park one day we capriciously chose to drive through this town, unvisited for years, remembered as a weatherworn place of no particular physical distinction, other than the massive Haystack Rock. And now…well, cosmetic changes are always noticed first, but these reflect how CB is thriving. In fact, a few weeks ago local news did a piece about increased property demand, versus existing structures shortage and rising property values here. They spoke to a couple out of Spokane, Washington, who’d been looking forward to buying property in CB for forever, but seeing their chances rapidly diminish were intent on finding ‘something now’. Something now is quite expensive, and will only get more so. It’s a good thing visiting isn’t.
We want information
Housed in a single-story shingled structure, at the corner of Spruce and 2nd, the Cannon Beach information center would probably make a good first stop in town. Here more of CB’s artiness is evident in the bronze jellyfish topping the railing posts along the side, just next to the public drinking fountain topped with sculptured pelican. Be sure to pick up the visitor’s map among the numerous pamphlets available for local and regional attractions, activities and accommodations. The woman on duty was friendly and very helpful. The next block eastwards on 2nd has a large convenient parking area where the automobile slots abut the rear fence.
In the Park
Immediately adjacent to the Information Center is City Park with the usual amenities, including several tennis courts, and a skateboard park fronting 2nd. It was very crowded the day we explored and unless we’d come prepared to play tennis (we hadn’t) found pretty much everything fully engaged, although the main users of skateboard park appeared to be some sort of drill team having a practice. For those looking for picnic facilities, shade, and lawn, a better choice, or least an alternative, would be Les Shirley Park on 5th beyond Ecola Creek to the west side of Hemlock.
Searching for Haystack Rock Viewpoint
It’s on the pdf version of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s CB map, but isn’t signposted within CB. There’s a place in midtown that seemingly would offer an outstanding view if you could gain enough altitude to see over the overlapping rooflines. Coincidentally this is where the map indicates the viewpoint to be, lying between Hemlock and 101 where the town climbs the most significant hill it has. These streets all have dead end signs, but thinking perhaps that one end was at the viewpoint we turn into one after another in a fruitless search. We tried flanking streets—hoping for a side entrance—again to no avail. We ended up on the highway looping between the CB exits north and south of the indicated position. There’s a turnout along the CB side of the highway in an appropriate position. Maybe, I venture, that’s it. I think if we pull over, exited the car, and step through the trees we’d find the promised view. I think it’s just not developed—yet. I get overruled, we don’t stop to verify. But the exploration convinces me the rest of the map is correct.
Whale Park
This park, at the corner of Sunset and Spruce, isn’t sign-posted, but the sculpture is highly visible from without. There’s no dedicated parking. The small paved area is partly roofed and has the few offered amenities; benches, water fountain, a trash container, and planting box with flowers. Considering the park’s small space it’s crowded with people, mostly just lounging in the shade to escape a relentless sun. (Although somehow they seemed to shift out of the pictures I took.) Centrally located along the edge nearest the beach is the sculpture giving the park its name. A small sign on one side of the whale reads "Endangered species. Please keep off," but there’s no interpretive sign to explain the whale’s significance (see the Les Shirley Park entry). One step farther (and down) and you’re on the northern most spit of Cannon Beach’s eponymous beach with Ecola Creek running at an angle to the coastline just beyond. Two figures, sharply silhouetted by a late afternoon sun, pilot a rubber dinghy along the waterway. I can’t help but think of William Clark and his men on their hunt for blubber. And if you look right, beyond the creek, you can see the point that is Les Shirley Park on the north shore.
This Ain’t Happening
Immediately adjacent to and diagonally across from Whale Park are two of the locations from the Historical Society’s Historical walking tour. I expected to see some hardcopy copy of this at the museum or information center, but didn’t. It does exist online so you can print it and bring it with you. I didn’t and this is as much as we saw.
Going Home
In the late evening reflected light illuminates the ocean long after the sky has darkened. A mouse, some relative of Speedy Gonzales no doubt, whizzes in front of the car to vanish, unharmed, into the dark. And deer graze in the dimly lit gloom along the opposite side of the road as we pass, apparently unconcerned about our presence. We stop at a viewpoint to watch the waves roll in, jagged white lines in the inkiness. It was a long day. It was a great day. And, still, everything smells great.