There are those that have to have reservations and there are those of us who wing it. Like you my plans for this summer have changed AGAIN so having reservations would be worthless. Like others have said, it's the weekends when CG tend to fill up so snag a site Thursday or early Friday (Non holiday weekend) and stay put in it over the weekend. Take some yellow tape and a folding chair that you leave to reserver your site while off in the TC.
I like this
site as you have the option of selecting various types of CGs... Casino, USFS, SP, and often overlooked County/City Parks. I also like this
site fo public CGs only as it uses a map with links for more details.
The nice thing about that area is it's cool enough so boondocking without a big generator is easy. Most of the places we stay at are no reservations and you put your money in a steel pipe. With that small a rig you will not have any problems except on weekends if you have not found a site and then you might have to go to a private CG.
My kids were not impressed that Crater lake is one of the deepest in the US or that the things sticking up around it are the petrified cores of volcanoes. I would put Mt. Rainier and Mt St Helen above it for visiting with kids.
We were in that area last summer and other than two rallies, we did not have reservations for the rest of the time and were able to stay on the beach and on some of the rivers along the coast without any reservations. Relax and enjoy your trip.
