How I Did Cannon Beach Without a Car
When I heard about Cannon Beach, OR, it sounded magical. I became fixated on it. When I went back to Oregon, I knew had to go to Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach, or bust!
However, I’m 20. My sister is 19. If any rental car agencies were willing to rent to us, it was outrageously expensive to do so because they charge exorbitant “young driver” fees. I scoured the Internet to try and find the best options for us. It was suggested to me that I should just, “Rent a U-Haul truck.” I calculated out what the price of that would be. It was nearly $200, despite listing the start price as $19.95. Car rental services such as Turo were also suggested to me, but the price point was still high due to our ages.
We considered skipping Cannon Beach. In fact, almost everyone was against us going. My sister didn’t even understand why I was pushing so hard for it. Our parents thought we (well, me, specifically), were crazy for wanting to go all the way there. What did I do? I made it happen.
Getting to Cannon Beach
Fortunately, this was the easy part! Cannon Beach is a small coastal city in northern Oregon. It’s about 80 miles from Portland, so it’s an easy day trip. The easiest way to get out there without a car is to take an Amtrak bus.
The bus leaves early in the morning, so we took the 9:30 a.m. bus from Union Station in Portland. A round trip ticket cost $34 each, so $68 total. Union Station is pretty far from Reed College, where we stayed, so we took an Uber to get there. It is doable via public transit, but we decided to just splurge on the Uber to make our lives easier and to allow us to sleep in.
The bus ride is actually so relaxing. I thought that we would be on a highway for most of the trip. Highways are how you get anywhere in Chicago, I thought it would be the same in Oregon. But no, most of the way is winding, narrow roads through massive forests and hills. It’s an unbelievable drive! I’d like to do it myself one day because then I could stop at the little hiking trails on a whim and check stuff out.
Day 1
The bus got to Cannon Beach around 11 a.m. It lets you out south of the main part of town, right where you can walk out and find Haystack Rock, near the Sleepy Monk coffee shop. My sister had fallen asleep on the bus, so the Sleepy Monk was our first stop to get her some caffeine.
One nice thing about Oregon is that there is no sales tax! So the price you see is the price you pay. If your coffee costs $2.50, you’re going to pay $2.50. It’s very straightforward. We got our coffees and sat down to relax. I got a slice of their pumpkin bread and oh my goodness was it delicious. The Sleepy Monk is a super cute place, but it is tiny.
After we got our food, we wanted to go down to the beach. This was when I realized something was wrong. I had broken out my rain boots for the trip. I hadn’t worn them in a year, and had owned them for at least 3 years prior to the trip. They were well-loved.
In packing for Cannon Beach, I packed lighter than I had ever packed in my entire life. I’m a notorious over-packer. Packing light is not something I do, ever. I had a small backpack, which I had stuffed to the brim with a set of pajamas, my toiletries, a change of clothes for the next day, a raincoat, and my phone charger/Kindle etc. It was stuffed full. I was impressed with the amount it held!
Well, packing light? It did not help anything when I looked down as we were leaving the Sleepy Monk. BOTH of my rain boots had split open at the seams. They were no longer waterproof, and they were incredibly uncomfortable to walk in, as my feet were basically shoving out the holes with every step I took. I wanted to cry. We didn’t have a car, and our bus ticket home wasn’t until the next day. Everything was nearly a mile away by foot. A nightmare. To top it off, a quick google search revealed that there were exactly 2 shoe stores in Cannon Beach. One sold Birkenstocks and Blundstones (so it would’ve cost an arm and a leg), and the other was a boutique shoe store (which in my mind, would be expensive and probably not shoes meant for heavy walking). Amazon didn’t even offer any sort of 2 day or express delivery to the area. Ugh.
My plan to wear the rain boots while I walked into the ocean to avoid getting my feet in the cold, October ocean was scrapped. We walked to the beach while I tried to come up with a plan. I took off my socks and boots and carried them. Aj sat down on the beach to read and do school work. I decided to explore barefoot and come back and deal with the problem of the shoes later on.
I had not been to the Pacific Ocean since a Hawaiian vacation circa 2007. I’d never actually been on the West Coast other than to visit Portland, which doesn’t count because it’s not coastal. Seeing it again made my heart so happy. This is coming from someone who hates the beach. But I had a better vacation than I’ve had in years over the weekend I spent at Cannon Beach! It was everything I had hoped it would be.
After exploring for an hour or so and doing a ton of walking up and down the beach, I knew I had to deal with the shoes. I decided to walk up and check out the boutique and Birkenstocks stores. They were about .8 of a mile from where we were hanging out on the beach. Let me tell you… Walking .8 of a mile in broken shoes on a ridiculously hot October day is exactly 0% fun.
I first went into the Birkenstocks store. Every pair that I looked at, they did not have in my size, or it cost well over $100. I was not prepared to pay that price. I walked right back out, and headed over to Sea Soles. My heart was sinking, I had no idea what I was going to do if I could not find new shoes. Our Airbnb was over 1.5 miles away from where I was!
I walked into Sea Soles and wanted to cry. It was what I had expected. Cutesy beach sandals with price tags I did not want to confront. But then, my day turned around! I found a pair of red rain boots on the shelf. Did they match what I was wearing? No. But were they functional? Yes!
The woman took one look at me, listened to my story about my boots, and immediately grabbed my size in the red boots. It was actually the last pair she had in that size. I was super lucky. Then, she told me that they were actually on sale. She rang me out, and let me wear the red boots out of the store. She threw away my old ones for me, which I appreciated because it meant I didn’t need to deal with finding a garbage for them on my own.
At this point, Aj had wandered down to join me in the main part of town. We grabbed lunch at Sweet Basil’s. This place was so good! And it was one of the few places we could go to that would cater to her “vegan/vegetarian” diet. Tip: If you pay cash the bill is less!
From there, we explored the shops. We checked out the yarn/knitting store, a book store, a toy store, and the kite store. We actually bought a kite to use on the beach the next day. Then, it was time to go get our Airbnb keys and information.
We booked an Airbnb through Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals. Their office is located near where the bus dropped us off. It meant trekking another mile back south. At this point, we were exhausted. It was way hotter than we had thought it was going to be, Aj had her backpack and her overnight bag, I had my backpack, we had just gone shopping and eaten a full meal. Neither of us were in great moods on that walk to the office.
One thing I had really wanted to do when planning this trip was to visit Ecola State Park. I had heard it was amazing! However, because we did not have a car, we ended up having to scrap this plan. We were exhausted from all the walking already, and it would have been a lot more walking to get to Ecola. Maybe one day I’ll get back there.
We got to the office and picked up all of the information we needed. And of course, they gave me a coupon that would work at Sea Soles! No way was I hiking all the way back there, but now I know for next time, if I stay with CBVR, they’ll give me a coupon. We also arranged for a late checkout, which was very awesome.
Then, Google told us that the bus wasn’t coming for about 45 minutes. We were pretty content to sit and wait. We went to the bus stop, but it was confusing. The one bus stop “shelter,” the only place with any bus signage, is on the northbound side of the road. We went into the shop on the southbound side and asked where to wait for the southbound bus. She told us to wait on the northbound side of the road! And this came from a local. It seemed backwards, but we dealt with it, and sat on the other side of the road.
Then, the bus was delayed. So we sat and waited. Finally, it pulled up on the northbound side of the road where we were sitting. The bus driver asked us where we were headed. When we told her we were heading south, she looked at us like we were crazy! Turns out, the shop owner was absolutely wrong. We could’ve been in Tolovana already! Ugh. Luckily, she was making a loop for some unknown reason. We had to drive up to town and wait 15 minutes (because she was somehow ahead of schedule? Their bus system is crazy). Then we finally headed south to Tolovana. The bus dropped us off right in front of the grocery store.
This was less than a half a mile from our Airbnb! We picked up some groceries for dinner and breakfast, and then walked to where we needed to be. Finally, we could rest.
After having a quick bite to eat, I was eager to get back out and explore the beachfront. I googled what time sunset was, and planned to leave about an hour before sunset to explore. I ended up leaving earlier than planned because I was so antsy and ready to check more stuff out!
Sunset in Cannon Beach was one of the most magical things I’ve ever seen. Holy smokes. It was just amazing! Our Airbnb was barely two blocks from the beach, so I went down the stairs to the beach and just walked.
Initially, I wanted to walk north and get some good pictures of Haystack Rock. After all, it was kind of what I had come to Cannon Beach to see! However, there were so many people swarming around up on that portion of the beach. When I looked south, it was empty! I decided that Haystack could wait. I wanted to explore where there weren’t as many crowds and people.
Don’t get me wrong. Initially, there were a lot of people out walking the beach. But the further south I went, the fewer people there were. I think that I made the right call! I was able to walk mostly uninterrupted and just enjoy the beautiful sunset and beautiful Saturday night.
Of course, the walk was not without incident. I did not know it at the time, but it was high tide. Based on how much beach there was, I assumed it was low tide. When I came back out the next morning, I would see how wrong I was. I wanted to walk around this rock, and get close up to it to take some good pictures of the sea life and such that were growing and living on it.
I had to time it just right with the waves. Sometimes, they’d come in and completely surround the rock. Other times, you’d have a bit of time to sneak up, snap a picture, and retreat. I really thought I could do it.
I was wearing a fleece jacket (which I really didn’t need, the weather was gorgeous). I had tied it around my waist, but was still storing my phone in the pocket when I was not holding it in my hands. I threw my phone in the pocket after I had taken the pictures and was just walking close to the water. All of a sudden, a MASSIVE wave rolled in. And with it came a dead jellyfish!
Now, I’m not an ocean girl. I had no idea if a dead jellyfish could harm you or not. A quick google search now reveals that it might have been able to sting me, especially because I was barefoot. Regardless, I saw the dead body floating in, getting dangerously close to me, so naturally, I took off running away from it.
When I was a safe distance away, guess what I realized?? My phone was no longer safely tucked into my pocket. I jogged back down to where I had been chased away by the jellyfish. Sure enough, my phone was floating face down in the shallow water, right next to the jellyfish corpse. Just my luck! I quickly rescued it.
Luckily, I have a Samsung that is water-resistant! I did my best to dry it off, and just kept moving along down the beach. When I got back to the Airbnb, I took a blow dryer to it to dry out the charging port, but other than that, my phone was absolutely fine.
I kept walking down the beach. I wanted to make it down to the large rocks that I could see just off the coast, a bit south of me. I knew I could make it before the sunset, but I was starting to worry that it would be black out by the time I got home. I was determined to make it there, though. I was not going to let sunset stop me!
I enjoyed my walk and finally made it to where I was headed. A woman was standing perfectly in front of the rocks as I was trying to take the perfect shot. I was waiting patiently to get a good, clean shot of the rocks when she approached me and asked if I would mind taking a good picture of her.
Of course I don’t mind! I just asked that she return the favor for me, if she did not mind. I snapped a few pictures of her on my phone, as my camera was better. We exchanged numbers and I quickly sent the pictures over to her.
After a quick discussion, we realized that we were both going to be heading back to Tolovana, and decided to walk with each other. Rita was absolutely lovely! She was older, but she was amazing to talk to, and she was willing to take as many pictures of me on the beach as I wanted.
We really had an absolutely lovely conversation. She had been coming to Cannon Beach for years, and told me what to see and do the next day. We also just talked about life! It’s always nice to meet someone new and make a friend while traveling.
Rita also convinced me to pick up this bull kelp! I had walked past it on the way down, but was slightly terrified. I hate fish. They make me really nervous. Seeing this thing washed up on the beach, I had no idea what it was. So I kept my distance. When we walked past it on our way back, she immediately told me to pick it up! And it’s now one of my favorite pictures of me. I sent it to people back home, and apparently, it wasn’t just me. No one knew that this type of giant seaweed was a thing!
Because I’m a curious person, I looked it up as soon as I got back. Bull kelp is really common in the Pacific. It grows with the long stem-end in the ground of the ocean, and then the top, where the “hair” is, waves around gently in the ocean. It tends to grow just off the coast. They sometimes get ripped out of the ground and end up washing up on the beach!
It’s actually edible, there are different places you can buy it. You should not eat it if you find it washed up on the beach though, because chances are, it has started to rot. Bleh. It was pretty cool to find this thing and learn about it.
But the best part about the walk on the beach? Beyond meeting Rita and picking up a piece of bull kelp? It was the fact that I got to see these views.
Day 2
I wanted to explore the beach further in the morning. My conversations the night before with Rita had left me yearning to walk even further south on the beach. She agreed with me in that Haystack was far too touristy. We both wanted to see stuff that was more “off-the-beaten-trail”. She had told me to try walking down to Arch Cape. I didn’t think I would make it that far, as it was about 3 miles away. Which would mean a 6 mile round-trip walk! But I wanted to go as far south as I could.
I woke up, and decided to get going. I left my sister to do her schoolwork and told her I would grab coffee/breakfast on the way back. There was a little coffee shop that we had passed that seemed worth trying! It was north of the Airbnb, and I was planning on walking north at first.
Then, I looked south. And again, there was no one south of me! I shot off a text to Aj saying, “hey, I’m going south instead. Coffee may be awhile.” And I just started walking. This is when I learned that what I had seen the night before had actually been high tide. I was able to get up close and personal with these rocks with much more ease than I had the night prior!
I continued to walk south with no intentions of turning back before I absolutely had to. I enjoyed my walk as there were not many people out on the beach so early in the morning. I was able to get really close to Jockey Cap, which was amazing!
It was so neat to be able to get this close to these massive rocks. At Haystack, you can do the same, but the experience is totally different because there are crowds of people around. I can safely say that I was the only person near these rocks at the time these pictures were taken. I was free to take my time and photograph what I wanted to photograph. When I was ultimately interrupted by the next person walking down the beach, I took it in stride because I had had almost 10 minutes of uninterrupted picture-taking. It was awesome.
As I walked further down the beach, I became aware that it was not just a walk to see the sights of the ocean, but that the coastline was also offering some amazing views. Here are a few of my favorite images of the shore.
I made it about two and a half miles down the beach before having to turn back. If I had gone any further, I would have been trapped. The tide was coming in, and if I had walked down the beach further, it would have trapped me on the other side with no way to get back to my Airbnb. As much as I wanted to keep going, I knew it wasn’t feasible.
One of my favorite things that I saw was this Lion Rock. This was as far as I could make it down the coast.
I was carrying my boots with me and walking barefoot. In attempting to get these pictures, I almost lost my second pair of boots! I set them down further up the beach (or so I thought), so that I could get closer to the rocks and the ocean and take some cool pictures. I turned around to look back at them, and the waves had grabbed them and are pulling them out to sea.
Luckily, I was able to rescue them. But I couldn’t believe I had almost lost a second pair of shoes in one weekend. I was also very lucky that the shoes didn’t tip over and fill with water. That would have been the icing on top of the cake.
I was able to get lots of gorgeous pictures of Humbug Point and Lion Rock. One day, I’ll come back at low tide, start out early, and make it past this point of the beach! I imagine it’s just as gorgeous as everything else I had seen. It was finally time to head back and pick up the coffee I had promised Aj.
I took my time wandering back up the beach to Sea Level Coffee. There was no line, and I was able to get her a fancy matcha latte. I got myself a maple bourbon sticky bun as a treat after my almost 5 mile round-trip walk (all of which was done barefoot–my back still feels the pain from that).
When I got back to the Airbnb, the first thing I did was shower. Low tide had done me no favors, I smelled completely and totally like fish. Gross. Then we relaxed and enjoyed having some time to just sit. Our checkout was not until 2 p.m., which was fantastic. We left AT 2 p.m. and went to sit down on a bench overlooking the beach and just enjoyed the sunny day.
We decided to walk up to town along the beach instead of waiting for the terrible bus again. And honestly? The walk was not bad at all! Except, the minute we got up from that bench, the day turned windy. It was fierce, cold wind that was pushing against us. It made the walk a lot more difficult.
Halfway up the beach, we remembered that we had bought a kite the day before!
Our tiny yellow kite was very anxiety-inducing to fly. It said it was perfect for “low winds”. Google claimed that the wind speeds were 11-13mph (“low wind”), but I’m skeptical. The winds were severe, from what we felt, and we were worried it might fly away. It was a short-lived venture due to this fear. But it was still fun! While I was distracted watching her fly the kite and trying to get a video of it, an intrepid seagull found where we had left our bags on the beach and started trying to drag one away. I was not able to get good pictures of the kite flying because I was too busy chasing off the seagull. Those are some persistent birds.
I finally made it to Haystack Rock and Needles. I had arrived the day before, but had been so busy seeing everything else there was to see that I didn’t actually see and get close to Haystack until Sunday afternoon.
We found a piece of driftwood near Haystack, and Aj set up shop to wait for me while I went to explore a few shops that were near where we were. I wandered and checked out a few stores, and then went back to find Aj.
Together, we walked back across the beach to get to the restaurant we wanted to go to for dinner, Pelican Brewing Company. We wanted to go to a sit down restaurant to kill some time before we had to get on the bus.
When we arrived at Pelican at about 4:45 on a Sunday night, it was way busier than we anticipated. We did have a slight wait to be seated, but it was fine because we were trying to kill time! And the food was totally worth it.
After dinner, I walked down to the beach to see a little bit of one more Cannon Beach sunset. And it did not disappoint. As you can see though, it was much more crowded at sunset up by Haystack Rock than it was down by Jockey Cap.
With that, we went to sit in the bus station and wait for our 7 p.m. bus back to Portland. And thus ended our Cannon Beach adventures!
Tips and Tricks for Surviving Cannon Beach Without a Car
- Make sure you bring reliable shoes! Don’t be like me. Make sure your shoes are going to last, and if you’re not sure that they’ll last, bring a spare pair.
- If you book through Cannon Beach Vacation Rentals, make sure to do your shopping AFTER you check in, as you will get a $5 voucher to use in certain stores.
- The bus is not the most reliable. It may be better on weekdays, but we did not have a good experience on the weekends. If you’re taking the bus, make sure you’re waiting on the right side of the road. Also be sure to have exact change for the fare.
- Stop in at Family Market and buy some of their homemade caramels. You won’t regret it.
- Enjoy the sunset! It is truly unbelievable.
- Walk south along the beach, if you can. The things I saw south of Tolovana and Cannon Beach were way better than anything I saw in town.
- If you don’t have a car and are walking from Cannon Beach to Tolovana, or to anywhere south, DO NOT WALK ON THE ROAD. Walk on the beach if possible! My plan was to walk along the road. Then, we decided to take a bus. Seeing the road from the bus, I am so glad we did not walk along it. It’s a narrow road, and it is pretty hilly and twisty-turny. I would not have felt safe walking along the side of the road there.
I really had the most fantastic vacation while in Cannon Beach. I cannot recommend it as a weekend getaway enough! If you head out to Cannon Beach, I hope you’ll find these tips and tricks helpful.
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