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Haystack Rock as seen from Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Day overcast and drizzle. Tillamook Head is in the right background.
Image taken June 28, 2010.
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Haystack Rock ...
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Haystack Rock is a large 235-feet-high basalt sea stack located at Cannon Beach, Oregon. It is protected as a sanctuary for birds and marine creatures. Tufted Puffins, Pigeon Guillemots, Pelagic Cormorants, and Western Gulls nest on the rock.
Captain Clark looked upon Haystack Rock from Tillamook Head in January 1806, but did not single it out.
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"... I have a view of the Coast for an emence distance to the S. E. by S. the nitches and points of high land which forms this Corse for a long ways aded to the inoumerable rocks of emence Sise out at a great distance from the Shore and against which the Seas brak with great force gives this Coast a most romantic appearance ..."
[Clark, January 8, 1806, while at Tillamook Head]
The USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) lists "Inspiration Point" as an early name for Haystack Rock.
"The name Haystack Rock refers to a prominent monolith on Cannon Beach, which for many years has been a popular and favorite landmark. It very much resembles a haystack, hence its name. But the names Haystack Rock and Inspiration Point have been used for the same point on the Cape Falcon map (USCE, 1937). Field investigation failed to find any evidence that the name Inspiration Point is known locally."
Source:
William W. Proksch, Party Chief, Champ C. Myers, Project Engineer, January 15, 1958, U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database, 2016.
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Views ...
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Haystack Rock as seen from road above Cannon Beach, Oregon.
One of The Needles is just visible on the left.
Day overcast and drizzle.
Image taken June 28, 2010.
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Cannon Beach, heading towards Haystack Rock.
Image taken July 14, 2010.
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Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Image taken July 14, 2010.
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Haystack Rock Geology ...
Fifteen million years ago large fissure eruptions occurred near Lewiston, Idaho, sending massive volumes of lava across eastern Washington and down the early Columbia River valley. These lava flows created layers upon layers of basalt reaching hundreds of feet in thickness. Collectively these lava flows are known as the Columbia River Basalts. Some of these flows poured into the Pacific Ocean and spread out through the soft marine sediments for dozens of miles. In some spots (such as Haystack Rock), these flows re-erupted through thousands of feet of mud onto the sea floor, essentially having their own eruptive centers. These lavas then cooled to become solid basalt. Millions of years later as the Coast Range lifted, so did these massive flows. Erosion took over creating such headlands as Tillamook Head and sea stacks such as Haystack Rock.
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"Haystack Rock is a large sea stack eroded from a re-eruptive center of Ginkgo pillow basalt and breccia, invasive feeder dikes and sills, and baked sediment ripped up off the Miocene deep seafloor. ...
Haystack Rock is an erosional remnant of a small submarine eruptive center or complex of Frenchman Springs pillow lava and breccia on the middle Miocene deep seafloor. The adjacent slender sea stacks (called The Needles) are also part of the bifurcating feeder peperite dikes and some breccias. The chemistry of this basalt corresponds to the Frenchman Springs Member of the Wanapum Basalt (Neel, 1976). The submarine pillow breeccia has a paleomagnetic direction similar to the Basalt of Ginkgo elsewhere in the Coast Range."
Source:
Wells, R.E., et.al., 2009,
"The Columbia River Basalt Group -- From the Gorge to the Sea,
IN: O'Connor, J.E., et.al., "Volcanoes to Vineyards: Geologic Field Trips Through the Dynamic Landscape",
The Geological Society of America.
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Scenic ...
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Cannon Beach, The Needles, and Haystack Rock.
Image taken July 14, 2010.
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Birds ...
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Haystack Rock is protected as a sanctuary for birds and marine creatures. Tufted Puffins, Pigeon Guillemots, Pelagic Cormorants, Common Murre, and Western Gulls nest on the rock.
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Gulls, Puffins, Murres, and Cormorant, Haystack Rock, Oregon.
Day overcast and drizzle.
Image taken June 28, 2010.
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The Needles ...
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Immediately to the south of Haystack Rock lie The Needles, two large protruding rocks.
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The Needles, south of Haystack Rock, as seen from Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Day overcast and drizzle.
Image taken June 28, 2010.
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The Needles, Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Image taken July 14, 2010.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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Clark, January 8, 1806 ...
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