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The 10 Best Places to Camp on Oregon’s Coast

By W.C. McRae and Judy Jewell, authors of Moon Coastal Oregon

From north to south, here are the top Oregon coastal camping spots for all interests—whether you’re looking for something easily accessible or beautifully secluded.

Best Camping on Oregon’s North Coast

Tents set in a grassy clearing with late afternoon sun hitting nearby trees.
Camping at Nehalem Bay State Park. Photo © Judy Jewell.
  • Fort Stevens State Park: Bike trails, a shipwreck, an old military fort, and a long beach where the Columbia River crashes into the Pacific make this a family-friendly campground. It’s big, too, with over 500 sites, including yurts and cabins, so it’s usually easy to find accommodations.
  • Nehalem Bay State Park: This campground has beach access to the Pacific on one side and sandy Nehalem Bay on the other; bike and hiking trails make it easy to get around.
  • Cape Lookout State Park: At the base of a secluded sand spit, with easy access to hiking on Cape Lookout–one of the coast’s top hiking trails–this campground has popular yurts and cabins.

Best Camping on Oregon’s Central Coast

Two dogs at the crest of a sand dune in Oregon's Honeyman State Park.
The dunes at Honeyman State Park. Photo © ktkochan/Flickr, CC-BY.
  • South Beach State Park: Just south of Newport, this large campground has easy access to the beach. It’s a great base camp for a guided paddle trip up the nearby Beaver Creek estuary.
  • Carl G. Washburne State Park: On the central coast between Florence and Yachats, camp on the inland side of the highway in a thicket of huge salal bushes. Pile your gear into a wheelbarrow (provided) and trundle it to one of the great walk-in campsites, then hike along the Hobbit Trail. There are also plenty of standard spots for car and RV camping.
  • Honeyman State Park: A few miles south of Florence, this large campground is a playground for sandboarders and dune riders. Two miles of sand dunes separate the park from the ocean. The two freshwater lakes within the park’s boundaries are popular places to boat and swim.

Best Camping on Oregon’s South Coast

The lighthouse near Cape Blanco
The lighthouse near Cape Blanco. Photo © Judy Jewell.
  • Sunset Bay State Park: Not only is this bay-fronting campground lovely, it’s home to the Oregon coast’s only real swimming beach and adjacent to several of the southern Oregon coast’s top sights: Shore Acres State Park, Cape Arago, and South Slough National Estuarian Research Reserve.
  • Cape Blanco State Park: A beautiful and often blustery campground at the state’s westernmost point, just north of Port Orford and Humbug Mountain. Campground trails lead down to the beach and to the nearby lighthouse.
  • Harris Beach State Park: Just north of Brookings, this magical campground sits in a grove of spruce and firs, and just off the beach are menhir-like sea stacks busy with seabirds.
  • Alfred A. Loeb State Park: On the north bank of the Chetco River, find aromatic old-growth myrtlewood and the nation’s northernmost naturally occurring redwood trees at Loeb State Park. The 1.2-mile nature trail winds through the redwoods, passing one tree with a 33-foot girth. When the south coast is foggy and cold on summer mornings, it’s often warm and dry here.

Travel Maps of Coastal Oregon

Coastal Oregon Topographical Map
North Coast of Oregon
Central Coast of Oregon
South Coast of Oregon

W. C. McRae

About the Author

W.C. McRae has been exploring Utah for several decades, each time getting farther off the road and digging deeper into the landscape. Every trip has a different focus, whether it’s hiking into a new and more remote canyon, fixating on ancient rock art, or going deluxe at guest ranches. Bill has written for Frommer’s, Lonely Planet, and Mobile Guides, and has contributed to 1000 Places to See Before You Die. He has also edited books for National Geographic and provided content for websites such as GORP.com and Expedia.com. When not fixing up his old house in Astoria, Oregon, Bill has a day job as a high-tech marketing writer.

While visiting Goosenecks State Park, Judy Jewell realized that, like the river below, she might be an example of entrenched meandering. Perhaps so… her work on the Moon guides to Utah, Montana, and Oregon has taken her to both the popular destinations and the remote areas in these states. In Utah, there’s nothing she likes better than tromping through a dry wash in search of rock art or an old granary. When she’s at home in Portland, Oregon, Judy works as a technical and scientific editor and a yoga teacher.

Learn more about this author

Judy Jewell

About the Author

While visiting Goosenecks State Park, Judy Jewell realized that, like the river below, she might be an example of entrenched meandering. Perhaps so…her work on the Moon guides to Utah, Montana, and Oregon has taken her to both the popular destinations and the remote areas in these states. In Utah, there's nothing she likes better than tromping through a dry wash in search of rock art or an old granary. When she's at home in Portland, Oregon, Judy works as a technical and scientific editor and a yoga teacher.

W.C. McRae has been exploring Utah for several decades, each time getting farther off the road and digging deeper into the landscape. Every trip has a different focus, whether it's hiking into a new and more remote canyon, fixating on ancient rock art, or going deluxe at guest ranches. Bill has written for Frommer's, Lonely Planet, and Mobile Guides, and has contributed to 1000 Places to See Before You Die. He has also edited books for National Geographic and provided content for websites such as GORP.com and Expedia.com. When not fixing up his old house in Astoria, Oregon, Bill has a day job as a high-tech marketing writer.

 

Learn more about this author

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