Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Florence & Coos Bay, OR Dunes Questions

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Topic: Florence & Coos Bay, OR Dunes Questions

Posted By: smooth1 on 02/28/18 05:15pm

I am hoping you guys can give me some advise on where to camp, and where to rent quads & atv's for a trip to the OR dunes. There seems to be a lot of options for both in that area.

The trip is my (2) boys 9 & 12, & myself in our camper in early April. My boys have ridden small quads and dirt bikes before, but we are not advanced riders and no sand experience. I can see us renting for a couple hours in the morning and possibly another round in the afternoon. We will be there for (2) nights (Friday & Saturday).

Spinreel & Dune Bug will rent 90 & 125cc quads to kids. Any others that we should look into. I can see us taking out a 4-seat UTV for some laps too.

Any hints on where to camp. Don't need hook-ups, but would use them if we had them. We would rather have some privacy and a camp fire is a must...

Posted By: Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli on 02/28/18 05:26pm

Jesse Honeyman State Park
Florence, Oregon

Waxmyrtle USFS Camp Ground
South of Dunes City, Oregon

Port of Siuslaw Camp Ground.
Florence, Oregon

These are two of my favorite campgrounds.
Inside Florence is the Port of Siuslaw Camp Ground right on the river and close to old town. Very handy place to camp with full hookups available..

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Posted By: donn0128 on 02/28/18 05:49pm

Salmon Harbor at Winchester Bay is a really nice place to camp. Right on the bay. There are a couple of rental places not too far away right on the edge of the dunes. Bit before you go, check age and license requirements for riding on the dunes.

Posted By: Ed_Gee on 02/28/18 05:53pm

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:

I would add that if you stay at Honeyman State Park you can have direct access to the Dunes. There are dune buggy rentals avtailable close by adjacent to the Dunes.

Ed - on the Central Oregon coast
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Posted By: wnjj on 02/28/18 06:04pm

Ed_Gee wrote:

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:

I would add that if you stay at Honeyman State Park you can have direct access to the Dunes. There are dune buggy rentals avtailable close by adjacent to the Dunes.

Direct access is only from Oct 1 to April 30 but with rentals you ride from the rental lot anyway. This was taken west of Honeyman last April:
[image]

I’d recommend avoiding Winchester Bay as those dunes are big. Down by Spinreal they are more suited to beginners and smaller machines. The south end of the Florence dunes are good too. Look for Lagoon or Waxmyrtle mentioned above. I have many fond memories from those when you used to be able to ride ATV’s direct from them.

Here’s one of Winchester dunes:
[image]

Posted By: Bedlam on 02/28/18 06:36pm

We will be in Florence in early July and Moses Lake in early May and always have a seat available.

We usually stay at the RPI park in South Jetty when in OR. It is also open for non-members. The same is available at Moses Lake or you can boon dock at the dunes. ML can loud at night and dusty during the day, so that comes with the free camping. There are sand camp sites at Forence, but they are not free.

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Posted By: whizbang on 02/28/18 06:58pm

We liked Woahink Lake Rv Resort.

I can't recall if they allow fires...

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Posted By: Boatycall on 02/28/18 07:02pm

I'm an AVID dune'r. There is SOOOO much info to tell.... Spinreel has a nice little shop that rents ATVs and Side by Sides right next to the campground.
Be forewarned - renting is VERY expensive. I took these pics just this last August of their rates. (Wayne - sorry they're bigger than normal, it was the smallest I could make them and still be read-able.)

[image]

Do NOT rent the "One Seat Ace" - they are small and very prone to rollover, two of my friends have them. You either need to be an expert rider, or have a lot of money for new plastics.

Campgrounds on the OR coast vary widely - No hookups/dry camping, partial and full hookups.

Sand Lakes near Tillimook for me is a nice place simply because it's the closest, only 4 hours drive for me. Dry camping only, usually very busy because it's closest to Portland, and the smallest of the ORV sand playgrounds. It can sometimes be dangerous just because of the number of people vs. small size.

Coos is awesome - everything you'd want, from mellow trails to hill climbs to go fast straight aways. My best time is 5hrs 58 minutes one way from Tacoma. I was Haulin arse. Norm is 7+. for me.

I go at least 2-3x a year to Coos, Sand Lakes, Florence, etc, and have for the last 10+ years.

If you decide to buy your own quads/atvs down the road - my advise would be to get more HP/cc's than you would if you're a trail rider simply because sand takes more power to move through. Getting stuck at the bottom of a hill or rat hole can suck... been there done that.

Also if you buy - note that not all campgrounds have ride-in ride-out access year-round. Honeyman for instance makes you truck your quads to the nearest sand access a mile down the road during the summer, but allows riding in during off-season. Other campgrounds like Spinreel-II are ride-in/out year round, but are dry camping only.

I have a ton of pics, I'll work on posting them on edit.

* This post was edited 02/28/18 08:59pm by an administrator/moderator *

Posted By: Boatycall on 02/28/18 07:41pm

ok... more pics

Pics of Sand Lakes. Sand Lakes has two different camping areas, both with ride access. A dry-camp campground you can reserve a space in, and two big 'first come first serve' camp areas, also dry. They just expanded the first come 2 years ago. And the bonus - the first come sites, you rent the SPACE, and are allowed to cram 2 full RVs on them if you want because the new spaces are HUGE and they recently decided that was a good rule rather than enforce extra vehicle charges. Also, if you have a National Parks Pass, camping is half off.

The parking expansion--
[image]

The original first come first serve lot
[image]

My ride, my cousin's in the background
[image]

My copilot
[image]

Campsite

The view looking NW from "Cell Phone Hill"
[image]

The view south from Cell Phone Hill
[image]

Various pics of Coos and Florence. They are within a half hour driving distance of each other.

None of the "Fails" were from my group/friends, just ones we came across.

[image]

The view of the actual Coos Bay
[image]

Beware of rat holes - the only way out is HP and balls...
[image]

My crew

Ran across this guy we dubbed "The UBoat Commander"--He flipped end-o and submerged his quad upside down.
[image]

Another Rut Roh
[image]

Riding the beach
[image]

Stuck at the top of a razor back
[image]

Another Rut Roh
[image]

Competition Hill
[image]

Coos Bay Bridge
[image]

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Posted By: Bedlam on 02/28/18 08:04pm

Posted By: old guy on 02/28/18 08:12pm

seems like when we were there we had to have a visa card to use to rent the four wheelers

Posted By: jimh406 on 02/28/18 08:17pm

We did a 6 person single dune buggy tour years ago. We thought it was great. We thought about renting 4 vehicles, but we're glad to pay the expert to get air and give us a tour all of the way to the ocean. We were two adults, two kids: one preteen, and one teen, btw.

It also seemed to have a lot of disclaimers and product liability if the rental broke, in the signs.

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Posted By: Boatycall on 02/28/18 08:28pm

Bedlam wrote:

Hey Bedlam -- Where's this?

Posted By: Bedlam on 02/28/18 08:39pm

If you go in December/January to South Jetty, these natural sand castles are everywhere. Not so much in the drier months.

Posted By: ORbiker on 02/28/18 09:37pm

WOW
Great pics.

I had the chance to go out on the dunes with a friend with a 900 Razar. He is a GREAT driver. We had a blast. He could keep up with the bigger machines because of his skills. He let me drive it a bit. Very, very fun, but I don't have all the practice he has had.

We were in the Houser area just north of Coos Bay.

[image]

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Posted By: smooth1 on 03/01/18 08:44am

Thanks everyone. This is exactly the info I was hoping to get. If it is 7 hours from Tacoma, then it is 8 for us in Bothell. My plan was to leave Thursday night around 8pm, get south of Portland, then finish the drive Friday morning. We would hit the dunes Friday afternoon to get a good feel for the riding and the toys. That should give us a good gauge for Saturday.

This will be expensive since we don't have our own rides, but I think this will be one of those spring break trips the boys will talk about for a while.

I also want to try the 4-seat UTV's too. I am more of a show up and see what happens type. I will look into the campgrounds that were recommended & like the idea of camping on the water. Probably going to reserve the camping spot, but do you think these toy rental places will be booked out on an early April weekend?

Posted By: D.E.Bishop on 03/01/18 09:09am

Just two asides, first, if you can get a GoPro or similar camera for one of the kids or yourself. I really adds to the memories. Second, in Charleston, there is a really neat Marine Science Center.

There is a good Mexican Restaurant on 101 N/O Florence, really, kind of in town and on the West side of the Hwy. I live in Northeast LA and we're exposed to some really great places, this is Good, much better than average. I'll call the niece and ask her, they know her and just put her order in, no menu needed for her. DW looked it up it's Rosa's at 2825 Hwy 101.

For adults on week ends or early(before 6pm) is Travelers Cove in Florence. I say adults because when the live music starts, it's noisy and a lot of singles looking.

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Posted By: Boatycall on 03/01/18 11:17am

smooth1 wrote:

leave Thursday night around 8pm, get south of Portland, then finish the drive Friday morning.

That's what my freinds and I do. We stay the night at a big truck stop in Colberg, exit 199. There is a lot of truck stop parking there, either left or right, truck stops on both sides.

smooth1 wrote:

I will look into the campgrounds that were recommended & like the idea of camping on the water. Probably going to reserve the camping spot, but do you think these toy rental places will be booked out on an early April weekend?

That will be extremely tough this late. Campgrounds in OR open up for reservations 270 days in advance, and I can tell you from personal experience you literally have to be Johnny on the spot the day your booking time comes available.
If you're wanting to book now for Spring break, not to be a Debbie-downer, but I'm going to bet you're already out of luck.

And a correction - the ride-in-ride-out dry camping CG I was thinking of is just south of Honeyman on the Florence dunes, Driftwood. They do have full bathrooms/showers. Stayed there a couple of times.
Honeyman has water/power and a dump as you leave.

Posted By: Bedlam on 03/01/18 11:24am

The Honeyman H loop has full and partial hookup sites. That's where we stay off season when they have the gate open for dune access. Driftwood II is a place we have driven through but not stayed due to it filling up so fast during the peak season.

Posted By: smooth1 on 03/01/18 04:14pm

I was able to get a full hook-up spot at Honeymoon State Park for the two nights. 'H" Loop was full for our weekend, but we don't have the toys to utilize the direct access.

I am glad the camping side of the trip is done. Now I need to call some of these shops and go over the costs, age, time slots, availability, etc., of their toys...

After our weekend, we will head east towards Sunriver, OR, and camp for Sunday night at one of the reservoirs between there & La Pine. Then skiing at Mt Bachelor for the rest of the week with a house in Sunriver.

This is year (3) of Spring Break skiing at Bachelor/Sunriver, but year (2) of splitting up the trip with a run at the OR coast. Last year we drove down the coast for (2) nights & got to Florence before we headed east to Sunriver.

Posted By: Bedlam on 03/01/18 06:59pm

In July we have our Florence trip followed by a stay in La Pine and then to a truck camper rally in La Grande. Sounds like we will be traveling the same routes at different times.

Posted By: ORbiker on 03/01/18 07:27pm

If you want to boondock, you could stay at https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/deschutes/recarea/?recid=39064 Cresent Lake Sno-park

Posted By: Bedlam on 03/01/18 09:11pm

We might check out that area as an alternate. The last time we tried to stay in La Pine, they had facility problems and we did some parking lot boon docking before staying on the north side of Bend.

Posted By: c.traveler2 on 03/01/18 11:26pm

All you guys have posted some really nice photos, keep it up. [emoticon]

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Posted By: discovery4us on 03/02/18 08:18am

Here are a couple pics from 2014 with the then new rzrS.

[image]

Posted By: Bedlam on 03/02/18 09:31am

Just to remind myself that this is the truck camper section and not the sand box:

[image]

Posted By: Fisher Bill on 03/02/18 02:52pm

Oregon Dunes KOA is another place to camp with access directly to the sand.

They have full hookups and it is all about the sand at this campground.

Bill

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Posted By: Bedlam on 03/02/18 03:06pm

That KOA is down toward Coos Bay. Riley Ranch is where I stayed when down there.

https://koa.com/campgrounds/oregon-dunes/

http://www.co.coos.or.us/Departments/CoosCountyParks/RileyRanch.aspx

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