How to find Free Overnight RV Parking on the Oregon Coast

By offbeatrvtravelJuly 29, 2024Leave a Comment

Driving the Oregon Coast is an adventure everyone should have at least once. The scenery is spectacular, the various tourist towns lovely, and there is an Oregon State park—either day use on the ocean’s edge or with a campground—about every 30 miles it seems. Video

There are hotels, motels, and a B&B or two along the way as well but budget RV travelers aren’t looking to shell out $100 plus on a night stay. At least I’m not! If I’m going to splurge on something it’s definitely going to be a restaurant meal or take out treat. Fish and chips, fried squid, a basket of beer battered shrimp… I’m all in. 🙂

Highway 101 pullouts and a few spectacular beach areas

The easiest way to meander around then find a place to rest for the evening is to look for a large pullout off of Highway 101 that does NOT have a “No Camping” or “No Overnight Parking” sign in full view. And there are plenty of them, as I show in the video below.

Free Overnight RV parking spots near Newport, OR

I’ve highlighted two spots for overnight stays that have ocean views near Newport, OR: Nye Beach and Moolack Beach. You can read about them and watch a video of the location here:

The featured photo at the top of this post was my morning view after sleeping overnight at Moolack Beach. 🙂

Windsurfing and beachcombing at Floras Lake in Langlois, OR

This is my favorite campground ever, and the good news is that if it’s full, you can overnight park just outside the park on a nice, quite rural county road. Score!

Pullouts on Highway 101 near tourist attractions

There are a lot of places to pull over along the coast, but these two spots I scouted out on my way to California are really excellent as they are near tourist hotspots: Gold Beach and Humbug Mountain State Park. There are large pullouts north and south of Humbug (located in Port Orford, OR).

A foggy morning after parking overnight at the viewpoint south of Gold Beach.

There are very large pullouts north and south of Humbug Mountain State Park.

Free camping in national forests won’t have cell service

There are some national forests on the Oregon Coast with free dispersed 14 day stay camping but most are isolated with poor access roads not accessible to many RV travelers, and none that I could find have cell coverage. I don’t camp in remote spots as a general rule, and always need internet.

To check those out just search online, other folks and some apps have shared that information. Tillamook State Forest, Wildhorse Meadow, Sand Lake, Smith River Falls, and Hebo Lake are a few areas you may want to research.

The USDA Forest Service website has listings for some dispersed camping areas here: Dispersed camping and OHV sand camping on the Oregon Coast.

Video of Free RV Parking on the Oregon Coast

This short video shows what I’m talking about with “Highway 101 pullout.” I always check cell service before I park, if you want to be online definitely do that before getting cozy. Some areas are dead zones along the coast, others have cell service.

Cell service on the Oregon Coast is spotty

The main towns have cell coverage, of course, but smaller towns and some stretches of Highway 101 are dead zones with no coverage.

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