20 Best Beaches in the World
By • Last UpdatedCannon Beach, Oregon
Rover is welcome on most of Oregon’s 400 miles of public beaches, including the expansive stretch of hard-packed sand at Cannon Beach, where the stunning Haystack Rock rises dramatically offshore. Each October, the Surfsand Resort hosts an annual dog show right in front of the beach.
Cannon Beach is a city located in Clatsop County, Oregon, with a population of 1,690 according to the 2010 census.
The first documented American journey to what is now Cannon Beach was undertaken by William Clark, a leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, in early 1805. During the expedition’s winter at Fort Clatsop, about 20 miles (32 km) north near the Columbia River’s mouth, two expedition members returned in December 1805 with whale blubber from a beached whale located several miles south, near Ecola Creek. Clark later explored the area himself, and from a vantage point near the western cliffs of the headland, he marveled at “…the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in front of a boundless Ocean…” This viewpoint, known as “Clark’s Point of View,” can be reached via a hiking trail from Indian Beach in Ecola State Park.