On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
frosty
We spent a little time in these two Oregon Coast towns. We were camped in Cannon Beach for four days and spent one of them on a day trip to Astoria, the first town settled west of the Rockies. The guidebooks say that many Victorian houses were built on the hills – if they were there we didn’t see them. We saw lots of nice bungalows and Craftsman houses though (I suspect the author wasn’t schooled in American residential architecture). We started our visit at the Astoria Column, browsed the Saturday market with street closures and walked around downtown.
The most notable part of Cannon Beach is Haystack Rock, just offshore. Low tide brings out families to investigate the tide pools, along with birders looking for puffins. The town itself is a typical upscale beach town, lots of good restaurants, and because it’s the Pacific Northwest, lots of coffee shops.
Astoria Column
Mouth of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific Ocean
Pier 39. This is a historic pier which houses the oldest remaining cannery building, once operated by Bumble Bee Seafood, now the Hawthorn Cannery Museum. It also includes a coffee shop and brewpub, because it’s Oregon.
Interior of Pier 39
Columbia River Gillnet Fishing Boat, Pier 39 Museum
Astoria, Liberty Theater, street market on the right
Haystack Rock
Haystack Rock
Low tide at Haystack Rock
The beach
mrmoshpotato
I’m more of a Chicken of the Sea man myself.
eclare
Very nice. There is even a rainbow in the third photo of Haystack Rock.
Now I have the Bumble Bee ad as an earworm…
Sphouch
Ahh, the land of the Goonies (and Short Circuit). So fun to visit, with nostalgia as a great backdrop.
OzarkHillbilly
Towns: Blech. ;-)
Tide Pools: Yes! :-)
JoyceCB
That first photo of Haystack Rock, like some strange and awful beast lurching up out of the sea! Wow!
Scout211
And Kindergarten Cop.
We have always enjoyed stopping at Astoria on our way from California to Oregon to visit my husband’s family over the years. The Oregon Coast is beautiful, as is the Northern California Coast. As many times as we visited Astoria on our summer vacations though, we never once saw the sunshine. It was fogged in every single time but that was always welcome because our Central Valley temps were 100+ during that time of the year.
We stopped a few times during the fall and finally experienced the town in sunshine. That was nice, too.
Thanks frosty, for bringing back lots of good memories. Our camping days are behind us but your posts bring back good memories of many camping trips over the years.
Torrey
@eclare:
So their diabolical plan worked!
It was an excellent tune, though. Catchy, and it did its job as a memorable jingle. Anybody remember the Chicken of the Sea jingle from the same era? Yeah, thought not.
And to frosty, thank you for the pictures.
CorgiMum
@Torrey:
Ask any mermaid you happen to see –
What’s the best tuna?
Chicken of the sea!
cope
Mmmm, Rogue Dead Guy Ale…
What a beautiful place, thanks for the photos and descriptions.
oldster
Now I know where the Emperor Trajan got his idea for that nifty wraparound column!
stinger
Nice!
worn
The second photo shows the Columbia Bar, one of the most treacherous places in the world for commercial maritime navigation. It is the graveyard for hundreds of vessels (around sunk 2000 since 1792). It is so dangerous that it is mandated commercial vessels are brought over the bar by an official Columbia Bar Pilot; these folks stand by 24/7 ready to captain a vessel in our out. They are bad asses.
For those interested, here’s a little news clip talking about their job conditions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZCLKq1XVFg
eclare
@worn:
That was fascinating. It was also prophetic, one of the pilots said he was there to make sure the ships didn’t hit a bridge. Thanks!
Anonymous At Work
Rogue is pretty good, at least it wasn’t a brew pub featuring IPA, Super-IPA, extra-hoppy Super-IPA, Quick-Brewed extra hoppy-IPA, and literally a bottle of hops buds.
And cannery makes sense to convert: sterilizing equipment, infrastructure for water intake and large open areas for processing/brewing. Good reuse.
opiejeanne
@Sphouch: And Kindergarten Cop*, and Labyrinth.
*It’s not a tumor!
opiejeanne
@Scout211: And. you beat me to the Kindergarten Cop comment.
piratedan
Cannon Beach has about three or four glass blowing shops and at least as of two years ago, at least once a week they spread a few glass floats about on the 7 local beaches for visitors to find. Also offer some sessions to make your own stuff if you’re into that kind of thing (I was!). McMenamens (sic) was my favorite joint while there for their seasonal blackberry cider.
opiejeanne
@worn: We visited the museum a couple of years ago with our son’s family. The most memorable parts were the blow-by-blow commentaries about the various disasters. So well explained that it was as if we were witnesses to the events themselves.
BigJimSlade
What’s with Pier 39? Did they name it after the San Francisco pier, or is there some magic about the 39th pier?
Helena Montana
Reminds me of happy times at Cannon Beach and Astoria, among other places in OR, in the ’90s? Did you get to Shallon winery? They make a surprisingly delicious chocolate wine.
Geoduck
Cannon Beach has a tsunami alarm system it tests by playing recordings of mooing cows.
frosty
@Helena Montana: Didn’t get to any wineries. Except, come to think of it Napa Chandon earlier in the trip. We passed Tillamook (cheese) but it didn’t look like they had parking that would accommodate a trailer so kept going.
JustRuss
Friend of mine grew up in Astoria, his dad ran one of the fish canneries, and one of his high school buddies was mayor for a while. Best fish and chips I ever had was there, salmon, at a little dive called the Portway. They didn’t offer the salmon last time I was there, sadly.
Warren Lorente
@BigJimSlade:
It’s a franchise. (I kid, I kid! Actually, I’m surprised that a small port like Astoria once had enough piers that they could be numbered as high as 39.)
Yutsano
Don’t judge us…