When the tide falls at Cannon Beach, you walk out around Haystack Rock on wet sand. The sea stack stands just off the beach, close enough that low water exposes the tide pools at its base, the rock still dripping. Tufted puffins take the ledges from April through August, and a week here is several falling tides, each one a walk back out to the same pools.
The city's Beach Interpreters staff daytime low tides from February through November, a longer season than the puffins. They work the sand around the rock, and they'll stop you from climbing it or taking a shell home. If your low tide falls in daylight in that window, they will already be on the beach when you arrive.
You eat in town and wait for the next falling tide. Cannon Beach has no public campground, so the first night is Nehalem Bay State Park, south down the coast. Sleep on the spit and come back to Haystack Rock each time the water drops.
Nehalem Bay State Park
You sleep in the shore pines at Nehalem Bay State Park. A sand dune stands between the campsites and the open beach, and the walk to the ocean is over that dune. The spit is a finger of sand with the bay on one side and the ocean on the other, and part of the ocean beach closes for nesting plovers in season.
Sites have electricity and water, with no sewer hookup except at the host sites. Book the campsite first, because reservations open up to six months ahead and the van is the second booking. The park stays open all year, and it is the closest public night to Haystack Rock. Stay several nights if you can, and treat the rock as a daily morning.
Oswald West State Park holds Short Sand Beach in a forested cove just south of Cannon Beach. You walk through the trees to the sand, a surf beach in a cove, and the park has been day use only since the walk-in camp closed.
Fort Stevens State Park at Astoria
A rusted ship skeleton, the Peter Iredale, lies half-buried in the sand at Fort Stevens State Park, north of Cannon Beach at Astoria. You walk out to the hull from the campground in the evening. Fort Clatsop at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park is the day from here.
The campground is open all year and has full hookups. When Nehalem Bay is booked, this is the overflow night. As of September 2026 the south loops are closed for construction. Some loops cap rigs at 35 feet. For more sleeping space or a longer rig, see RVs for rent in Oregon.
Seaside, Manzanita, and the public beach
Seaside and Manzanita sit on either side of Cannon Beach along the coast highway. Oregon's beaches are public by law, a rule that started with a Cannon Beach fight over the dry sand. You drive through both towns for lunch and a beach walk, with no camping at either. Ecola State Park is the day between Seaside and Haystack Rock, on an entrance road that is not for motorhomes.
The Tillamook Creamery is a free self-guided tour with no reservation. Cape Meares is the lighthouse on that loop, and Cape Lookout State Park is closed for construction as of September 2026.
Newport and the rest of the central coast start with Oregon. The western Columbia River Gorge is the Portland campervan trip.