Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Cape Kiwanda, a Bigger Haystack, and Tidepools!
What a wonderful week on the Oregon Coast! In my last post, I shared pictures of Oregon’s most famous beach, Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock. In this post I’ll share a lesser known beach, even more unique with its giant Sandstone Bluff and even bigger Haystack Rock, Cape Kiwanda at Pacific City.
We went there for a wedding in the sand, and it was a perfect venue despite the weather.
But don’t wait for a wedding to go – the giant beach has room for many diverse activities.
Climbing the giant sand dunes
Watching the Dory Fleet launch their boats into the surf – the only place on the West Coast where commercial fishing boats do so.
Visiting the tidepools
rich with life
Even surfing all day and into the night.
Here’s how Wikipedia describes the geology of the area.
“Cape Kiwanda is an unusual promontory in that it is composed primarily of sandstone of the Astoria Formation. At one time, the promontory likely stretched roughly 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) to the southwest, connecting to Chief Kiwanda Rock, an intrusive basalt sea stack that is Miocene in age.
Cape Kiwanda, with its many tide pools small inlets, natural arches and deep chasms, is a stunning example of large-scale erosional sculpting in sandstone. Remnants of huge Holocene era parabolic dunes that cover the highest parts of Cape Kiwanda add to the scenic interest of the locality. This unique geological feature is a must see and is one of the most photogenic landforms along the Oregon Coast.”
Chief Kiwanda Rock at Cape Kiwanda is more commonly known as Haystack Rock, at 340 feet tall, it’s more than 100 feet taller than the more famous one at Cannon Beach.
Both are worth a visit.
~ Susanne
P.S. Do you ever finish a post and then find a picture you should have included? That’s me. So, here’s the sky over Cape Kiwanda.
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
Such a beautiful place! The stuff in the tidal pool is kind of creepy looking. 5.3 to 23 million years ago was the Miocene era. That’s a few days ago…
It was amazing! And I loved all the life in the tidepools, in all their colorful shapes and sizes!
The oceans are a completely different world than above the waves.
Never went there, but it looks fabulous.
It’s such a special place on the coast, but rather hidden, as you have to turn off 101 to get there.
What a fantastic location for a wedding! The beach looks beautiful and I love all your tidepool close-ups 🙂
Thank you. 🙂 It was a wonderful venue, and the bride and groom were so happy! And I loved the tidepools, with so many colorful creatures!
I love rock pools! We have them on the west coast in England, but none near where I live. The venue for the wedding was lovely, despite the grey day.
Best wishes, Pete.
It really was a beautiful venue, and I loved seeing all those mysterious sea creatures!
I love the photos of the starfish!!
Thank you! I loved seeing so many of them.