Oregon Coast Highway - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 98

Haystack Rock, named for its distinctive shape, is one of the largest “sea stacks” on America's Pacific coast and hosts
nesting seabirds in the summer and marine invertebrates year round.
20. Cannon Beach
On the way to Cannon Beach, take time out to enjoy the dazzling ocean views visible from
lookout points along the road. One mile east of town you can see a replica of the ship's
cannon that washed ashore here in 1896 and gave this tiny artists colony its name.
Towering over the beach is 235-foot-tall Haystack Rock, a bullet-shaped monolith that
isoneofthemost-photographedsightsonthecoast.Nearbyaretworecreationareas:Ecola
State Park, which offers glorious views of the coast through fog-shrouded firs, and less-
crowded Indian Beach, one of the state's few rocky beaches.
As you leave Cannon Beach and continue north on Rte. 101, you'll pass Seaside, Ore-
gon. It is the oldest coastal destination resort community in Oregon, the Pacific endpoint
of the Lewis and Clark Trail, and the site of a 1.8-mile-long oceanfront promenade with
outstanding views of the ocean. Visit its historic aquarium.