Rock Creek Campground — Hotel in Florence

My family and I recently moved back to Oregon. We've been camping for a good chunk of the summer, staying at state parks, federal parks, etc. We stayed 2 nights at Rock Creek campground and loved it, it was so gorgeous and the kids really loved the view and secluded spot. We also stayed a total of 8 days at cape perpetua making our total time spent in the Siuslaw forest this summer 10 days. We really loved Rock Creek so we have driven through there a couple of times over the past couple of weeks looking for any openings as we have 4 nights left that we are allowed to stay in the Siuslaw Forest System for the allotted time period. We bought an America the Beautiful pass so we could enjoy the discount this time. The park manager was so rude and hurtful. She accused us of overstaying our 14 days. She humiliated us in front of other campers. We did nothing wrong and she threatened us saying that we would be given a ticket and told to move along. She assumed we were homeless and said this was not an alternative to “affordable housing", we were simply enjoying our time in nature before the kids return to school. We didn’t know that coming in to look for available first come first served spots would make people think we were homeless and treat us like total heathens. On top of that, even if we were homeless, what a terrible way to treat others. We won't be returning...

It's hard to find good tent camping along the southern coast with all the RVs, but we got lucky with this little place. It is set in from the coast enough to get a break from the winds and there is some good space in between spots. We got campsite #10 and it was nice and private, but smaller than the other more open sites. There is a trail down to the beach but it was far too cold to go in the water even in late July and very windy. I did find a few sand dollars at low tide and the rocks are covered with starfish! Every site is along the creek and my daughter had great fun playing in the water there. The campground is a bit on the expensive side at $22 with no flush toilets and no water, but I'll pay for a little soltitude. The camp hosts have firewood available for...

The beach here is actually called Roosevelt Beach, and it is pretty unique along the Oregon coast in that it’s sprawling and it’s hidden. No one knows about this spot. It’s not always easy to get to, either. There are some hidden walkways to it through the dune grass – look for a couple of dusty patches by the side of the road (look up the Upper Lane County Virtual Tour for full details on finding these). That big funky knoll / knob structure has another face: on the other side lies Ocean Beach Picnic area with a similar look. Great tide pooling here, and you’re almost always completely alone. Stay clear of it during stormy weather however: it doesn’t take tides to get too high for this place to become...