The Needles, the southern neighbors in the shadow of Haystack Rock, are home to a labyrinth of intertidal waters.

At their base are tide pools filled with ochre stars, green anemones, nudibranchs and blue mussels.

A close look at the pair of smaller Cannon Beach sea stacks — popular with photographers as they’re often framed by sunset rays and layers of mist reveals a colony of nesting cormorants and murres, as well as the standard circling gulls and pelicans.

During summer’s lowest tides, the closest of The Needles is accessible by foot, but not without careful crossing.

The seafloor near these rocks is layered with delicate marine life. The lower the tide falls, the more layers of the Needles are revealed, with layers of kelp, shellfish and other tide pool creatures.

As one sign, placed by the Haystack Rock Awareness Program, puts it: “I’m not just a rock, I’m a home.”