Haystack Rock is Cannon Beach's Natural Treasure
Published: 12/15/2008

Rising 235 feet above the shoreline, Haystack Rock is a natural treasure and one of Oregon's most recognizable landmarks.
Photo by Gary Hayes
This dramatic seashore monolith offers habitat for nesting seabirds including tufted puffins and at its base colorful tidepools are filled with fascinating creatures.
Cannon Beach's world famous landmark rises 235 feet above the shoreline at the ocean's edge. Haystack Rock is a natural treasure and remarkable geological formation, millions of years old, where you can explore colorful tidepools and watch nesting puffins. In its tidepools, colorful sea stars cling to barnacle-covered rocks, bright green sea anemones lay open like flowers and thumbnail-sized hermit crabs scurry along in borrowed shells. Its grassy covering provides nesting ground for Tufted Puffins from early spring through early summer, offering the Northwest's most accessible location for viewing these brightly colored characters. Many other varieties of birds feed, visit or nest on Haystack Rock including Western Gulls, Pigeon Guillemots, cormorants, Bald Eagles, Harlequin Ducks and Black Oystercatchers, making it a year-round attraction for bird watchers. Between March and September, during daytime low tides, the Haystack Rock Awareness Program provides interpretive information on the beach near the rock with displays of live intertidal specimens and spotting scopes for bird watching.
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Published: 12/15/2008

Rising 235 feet above the shoreline, Haystack Rock is a natural treasure and one of Oregon's most recognizable landmarks.
Photo by Gary Hayes
This dramatic seashore monolith offers habitat for nesting seabirds including tufted puffins and at its base colorful tidepools are filled with fascinating creatures.
Cannon Beach's world famous landmark rises 235 feet above the shoreline at the ocean's edge. Haystack Rock is a natural treasure and remarkable geological formation, millions of years old, where you can explore colorful tidepools and watch nesting puffins. In its tidepools, colorful sea stars cling to barnacle-covered rocks, bright green sea anemones lay open like flowers and thumbnail-sized hermit crabs scurry along in borrowed shells. Its grassy covering provides nesting ground for Tufted Puffins from early spring through early summer, offering the Northwest's most accessible location for viewing these brightly colored characters. Many other varieties of birds feed, visit or nest on Haystack Rock including Western Gulls, Pigeon Guillemots, cormorants, Bald Eagles, Harlequin Ducks and Black Oystercatchers, making it a year-round attraction for bird watchers. Between March and September, during daytime low tides, the Haystack Rock Awareness Program provides interpretive information on the beach near the rock with displays of live intertidal specimens and spotting scopes for bird watching.
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Featured Destination
Click to read about how to love Cannon Beach like a local. There is magic here!
Cannon Beach Activities & Attractions
We offer treatments that restore your signature balance, using creative and advanced techniques.
Cannon Beach Activities & Attractions
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An upper level furnished studio apartment in the heart of downtown, close to shops and the beach.