Free Wild Camping – Bastendorff Beach Oregon

There is a fair amount of free wild camping in the state of Oregon. However, its mostly inland and we’ve never had much luck finding anything on or near the beach…until now!

We finally hit the jackpot in Coos Bay, OR with this little speck of land owned by the BLM. Bastendorff Beach is just two miles from Sunset Bay State Park and has fantastic sunset views with Cape Arago Lighthouse off in the distance. Every evening we had the most spectacular show right out our front door!

The Oregon coast is such an unpredictable place in the fall.  One afternoon is filled with warm sunshine and blue skies while the next feels like a scene written by Hemingway. There’s nothing like throwing on a high neck sweater, pouring a 12 year whiskey, settling in at the captains chair (of the RV) and yelling “all hands on deck” at the boat ahead.

Bastendorff Beach

We found this spot listed on UltimateCampgrounds (one of our favorite road trip apps) but we stopped in at the BLM office in Coos Bay to get the scoop on the area.  They did warn us we wouldn’t be the only campers out there and once we arrived, we understood what they were getting at.

While we had just learned of this wild camping gem…the locals have know about it for a long while. There was a fair population of people in tents and a couple of other RV’ers. Some of them looked like they had been here far longer than the 14 day stay limit. They all kept to themselves, watched the sunsets and were quiet. Which might explain why the local BLM hasn’t made a big push to move them on.

As for us, we didn’t stick around near long enough! We would have stayed our full 14 days here if we hadn’t already agreed to meet family further down the coast.

What about you, have you stayed at this same spot or another fantastic free beach spot we need to know about?  Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Road Report

GPS Coordinates – 43.350205, -124.340591
Road/Camping Conditions – The road in is nice and the camping area is mostly an un-maintained parking lot. If you are tent camping or have 4wd then the sandy roads lead to some fantastic secluded sites with even better views.
Weather – We had a mix of misty rains and sunshine. The high was around 60 while the low was 44.
Connectivity – We had full bars and 4G Verizon
Dates Visited – November 1 – 4