Arcadia Beach State Recreation Site

A shady grove just off the highway and a few feet from the sandy ocean beach below, Arcadia State Recreation Site is located a mile south of Cannon Beach.   Take a lunch break on your way north or south, or plan for a day at the beach.  Bring your blanket, kick off your shoes and feel the waves lapping at your ankles.  Explore the beach and its tidepool areas to the north and south.  Or watch for surfers just off shore.  Please remember to keep an eye on the ocean, know if the tide is coming in or going out and explore tidepool areas gently and safely. 

Arcadia’s beach stretches for more than a mile between two headlands.  Just a short distance to the north is Humbug Point, with Lion Rock just off the point.  To the south is Hug Point.  Both headlands can only be passed at low tide.  Humbug Point was named by pioneers because it was often confused with Hug Point, the next headland south and the most difficult headland to round when traveling south along this stretch of coast.  If you have the luck to explore during low tide, .6 mile further north, past an off shore rock called Jockey Cap, is Silver Point, so named for the color of the weathered spruce trees on the bluff. 

Notice the sandstone bluffs to the east and in cut-away places off the bluffs.  These sandstone areas were once underwater and only recently uplifted.  The pressures exerted on them from the uplift can be observed in the tilted and twisted patterns of layered rock.  In addition, wind, sea and rain have eroded the landscape and continue to do so today.