We spent our last day in Oregon on the coast. We had another early start to make it to Cannon Beach at low tide so we could explore the tide pools (finding another donut spot along the way). We easily got parking in town and entered the beach through Gower Street and set off towards Haystack Rock, the prominent landmark at Cannon Beach. I thought if we were lucky we would see a sea star here or there and was delighted that the tide pools were full of colorful sea stars. This was a fun spot to walk around and look in all the nooks and crannies for sea critters.

There are a number of state parks and beaches to visit along the coast and we decided to head south on 101 to visit Short Sand Beach in Oswald West State Park. It was a fifteen minute drive from Cannon Beach to the South Trailhead for Short Sand Beach. It looked as if all the cars in the parking lot were there for surfing and we did see a lot of surfers on the beach. To reach the beach it was about half a mile on several trails through an old growth rainforest (Necarney Creek Trail, Old Growth Forest Trail, Short Sand Beach Trail). I enjoyed walking in the forest, as well as Short Sand Beach in a lovely little cove. We walked around the beach for a while then returned to our car.

I think if the weather had been nicer than the cold day we had with drizzle and rain, we would have spent more time on the coastal trails and beaches. Instead we decided to eat lunch and on our way back to Cannon Beach we saw an elk herd. We are so accustomed to seeing elk at the Grand Canyon that it felt weird to see elk out of that context. As we watched them cross the road we observed they looked smaller than the elk at the Grand Canyon. We had a tasty seafood lunch at Ecola Seafood in Cannon Beach and continued north on 101 to Seaside. Seaside is the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail; the explorers were the first non-Native Americans to set foot in this area and there is a statue commemorating them by the Seaside Promenade. Today Seaside is a bustling community that feels like a throwback, campy beach town. It was a perfect place to burn a little time on a rainy day. It seems like beach and saltwater taffy go hand in hand, so our first stop was Candyman to pick out some taffy from their huge selection of flavors. Then we wandered over to Funland to try our hand at the arcade games and spend all our quarters on Fascination (harder than it looks! I might have squealed when I won a round). After our boardwalk fun we continued north to Astoria. Between the weather and traffic, we ended up not spending a lot of time here. We did visit The Goonies house and made the obligatory quotes while taking some pictures. Before heading back to Portland we checked out the Peter Iredale wreck at Fort Stevens State Park. We stopped in Hillsboro to eat at Downtown Station which had a large selection of food carts and ample seating. And that was it for our quick trip as we flew back home the next morning. It was a good Labor Day weekend!