Oregon Coast

I would start in the Astoria area for your first home base. If you are unable to stay at Ft Stevens SP, there are commercial places available. The next home base might be Newport. If you can get into any of the state parks, you are not going to be disappointed. South Beach or Beverly Beach are nice. While I might stay in the Reedsport area (Winchester Bay is highly recommended)you might find more to do in the Coos Bay/Charleston area. The last area would be Brookings, my favorite is Harris Beach which books out immediately. This is a beautiful area and also close to the redwoods near Crescent City. Have fun. Love to join you with my dog, the Oregon coast is a favorite of mine. My late wife and I would go there every summer for years.

We did exactly that last year for a couple weeks although it was September and were able to get into state parks with no booking. Stayed at Cape Lookout, Carl G Washburn and Harris Beach State Parks. Awesome trip !!

We just did a reverse of what your going to do. We came up 101 N. from San Francisco. We found the Oregon cost to be beautiful. We stayed at the Ocean Front RV resort by Charleston, this was a great place, just steps away from a wonderful sandy beach. The second place was Lewis and Clark in Astoria. This is a great place to use as a home base for exploring the area. It has a 9 hole golf course as part of the CG but this shouldn't be the purpose of staying here. This is a very clean, safe, well run park. We plan on returning here in the future. Good luck and safe travels.

If you want a really first class resort, Pacific Shores near Newport is a good choice. Really stunning views, generous sites, and excellent facilities, but you pay for them.

Neskowin Creek RV Resort is about 8 miles north of Lincoln City, OR. Chinook Winds Casino Resort is in Lincoln City.

Things to do in central Oregon coast: http://www.oregoncoast.org/

Spirit Mountain Casino is about 20 miles east of Lincoln City on OR-18. The Cedar Plank Buffet is excellent. The casino has a very large RV parking lot with no RV hookups. It has pet walk areas, free dump station, and free potable water station, 2 bus shelters with call buttons for the casino shuttle, and an easy walk to the convenience store with gas, diesel, propane, breakfast/lunch diner.

Rocky2 wrote:
I would start in the Astoria area for your first home base. If you are unable to stay at Ft Stevens SP, there are commercial places available. The next home base might be Newport. If you can get into any of the state parks, you are not going to be disappointed. South Beach or Beverly Beach are nice. While I might stay in the Reedsport area (Winchester Bay is highly recommended)you might find more to do in the Coos Bay/Charleston area. The last area would be Brookings, my favorite is Harris Beach which books out immediately. This is a beautiful area and also close to the redwoods near Crescent City. Have fun. Love to join you with my dog, the Oregon coast is a favorite of mine. My late wife and I would go there every summer for years.

Great selection of locations - we did this in January and February of this year.

There is a KOA in Astoria if you can not get in Fort Stevens

Check the Port of Newport Park right on the bay in Newport

Here are three others we stayed at that were nice

Pacific Pines RV Park http://pacificpinesrvpark.com/RVPark/(S(xzpqzcbaudsvxjjbhkegamiq))/Pages/p0010Welcome.aspx Florence Oregon
BANDON BY THE SEA RV PARK http://www.bandonbythesearvpark.com/index.html Bandon Oregon
AtRivers Edge Rv Resort http://www.atriversedge.com/about.cfm Brookings Oregon

The above suggestions are great and I'll add a couple, in Waldport on the River is a marina and RV park. Inexpensive but usually available and allows you to cover from Yachats to Newport easily.

Florence has a city park just and I mean just east of Old Florence, one block East. Allows for sightseeing from Winchester Bay to Yachats.

As mentioned, Winchester Bay has two parks, one Douglas County and one private. The private park is great the county park is for dune busters, very noisy all day and evening.

Honeyman is a great park, I took swimming lessons there in 1949. Same area as Florence. Up river from Florence is Cushman, there is a very small park there. The island in the river there was a hideaway for the Greatful Dead in the 60's and 70's. Closer to town is an indian casino, I don't go to casinos and I don't know anything about parking there.

Just east of Lincoln City is Otis, a very small town with one of the best cafes on the coast. Be sure to have breakfast there. Half order of the German potatoes with eggs or what ever.

Fort Clatsop is an easy drive from Fort Stevens and a very interesting reproduction of the Corps of Discovery's winter location. Across the river is a great museum on the history of the river and crossing the Columbia River Bar. You really have to see the river in action in the winter to appreciate the danger there.

In Newport there are several must see's, Rogue Brewery Public House for lunch or dinner, the Newport Aquarium, Hatfield's Marine Science Center, and Old Town Newport. The made in Oregon Shop and Wood Gallery are a couple of our favorite.

Beachcombing in Bayshore at Waldport is cool. Bayshore is a residential development but there is public beach access.

Between Waldport and Florence is Devils Elbow Day use park, Heceta Head Lighthouse, Cape Perpetua and of course the Sea Lion Caves.

Florence has the Dunes, you do not have to pay to drive through...... Just tell the person at the gate you're going out to the jetty to watch the surfers. My nephew surfs there and they had to threaten the State to get access to public property. Only the immediate dunes are in the park.

We love lunch at the Sea Hag in Depot Bay. Many disagree with our choice but their chowder is good. Next door is the taffy place, very good taffy. Other shops can be fun.

Hope this is some more help, have a great time.

When we were in Florence in February the park run my the port authority looked like a homeless camp- was iffy

The Oregon Coast is about 350 miles long. So unless you drive less than 100 miles on travel days, you would not need any overnighters between your 3-4 "home bases".

The Mill Casino is in North Bend/Coos Bay. Nice RV park and also huge lot for overnighting without hookups. That lot used to be free, but I see on their website that they started charging $15/night this year.

We like McKinley's RV Park in Waldport. That may be the one D.E.Bishop is referring to.

We have been to the OR Coast 4 times with the RV and, God willing, will be spending nearly 4 weeks there again this year. In fact, we will be there at exact same time as you. This time will be two weeks in Cannon Beach, 5 days in Newport and then a week in Bandon - we have not stayed in Bandon before and looking forward to that.

No matter what you decide I suggest you make reservations asap; many places may be fully booked already. You are finding that out already.

I know, free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it! :-) But I have found that the vast majority of info on this Forum is good.

We stay at FHU, usually private RV, parks.

We love Cannon Beach area and stay at Cannon Beach RV park. We should be there 8/22 - 9/5 which includes Labor Day. Ecola State Park is just north of town and it wonderful.

Then we go to Newport. The "new" rv park is right at the marina and good. And always go to Tidal Raves in Depot Bay for an early dinner - make a reservation so we can get a window table. With luck, some whale watching, otherwise just ocean crashing on rocks below you.

We have stayed at Winchester Bay at the RV park; one of the nicest places you can find. We are skipping it because, unless you are into dune buggies, there is not a lot to do there. And the beach walking is much better so many other places - you have to drive a bit to get down to the walking area from the rv park. Beautiful place but not much there for us - which is why we are going to try Bandon this year.

Make sure you stop at Tillamook Cheese and have some ice cream and perhaps buy some cheese.

Old Town in Newport is neat - make sure you see the sea lions.

Lots of things to see along the Coast with lots of pulloffs big enuf for your rig or a toad.

For pix, see www.LaurenBarbara.com and go to Wanderings link on left then to Oregon then to Coast.

Email or PM me if you want more info.

Enjoy - be safe.