Favorite place to camp/stay along Oregon coast

Well,

We have our airline tickets and car rental. So now I am just trying to narrow down places to stay. We'll fly into Portland May 10 and be there for two weeks. We will probably be looking for beach rentals (some nice ones on craigslist) and do some camping. Any recommendations on cool places to stay with great access to photo ops appreciated. So far Harris beach looks like a good place to camp for access to Boardman SP.

Here is our tenative plan:

Portland
* Columbia River Gorge Waterfalls
* Japanese Gardens
* Maybe a lake

Cannon Beach
* Ecola SP - sunset
* Hug Point?
* Owald West State Park

Oceanside
* Three Arch Rocks
* Tunnel Beach - low tide thru the tunnel

Newport
* Aquarium
* Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Yachatas
* Haceta Head - sunset/night
* Cape Perpetua

Bandon
* Coquille River Lighthouse - sunset/night from across the river
* Shore Acres State Park

Gold Beach/Brookings
* Cape Blanko & Lighthouse
* Pistol River State Park
* Boardman SP - Natural Bridge Cove

Crater Lake
* Not sure where to stay?

Thanks for any tips and/or experiences,

The place I always stay for Crater Lake is at the cabins that are for rent nearby at Prospect on highway 62. If you stay there, take the short walk to explore the Rogue River Gorge - it is pretty cool... it is close to CL too...

Oswald West is cool if you want to camp. If you need a hotel or beach house to rent, stay in Manzanita. Probably the coolest least built-up feeling, cute and quaint little town on the Oregon coast. If I was buying a beach house, it would only be in Manzinita..... Make sure you also visit Seal Rocks state park but go North from the parking area to find nicer rocks than the usual Southern area of the beach.

Nehalem Bay State Park is nice for camping, south of Cannon Beach, with yurts or spaces, and a short walk over the dunes on to a wide open beach. I think it's near Manzanita where John was recommending.

If you're looking for a beach house to rent, another option (somewhat) off the beaten path is Pacific City. There are rentals along the spit, halfway between Cape Kiwanda and Bob Straub State Park, with both in walking (hiking) distance. Pacific City is not on Highway 101, and has a less chaotic scene as a result. As a bonus, you can also photograph dories launching/landing at the base of Cape Kiwanda.

Thanks for all the great tips guys - a lot of good food for thought!

John, I really like what I have seen of the Manzanita area for close proximity to a lot of great places. Plus there are some affordable vacation beach rentals there as well.

Ned, staying in Prospect sounds good for Crater Lake access. We will either rent a cabin there or splurge and stay a night at the Crater Lake Lodge. We will most likely be coming from camping at Harris Beach. So either one will be nice. I am just hoping things will be open enough by then (May 22) to get a decent view of the lake.

There are other spots along the coast that also sound good. So I'll have to do some more investigation. But right now I like the idea of staying around Walport for central coast access. It is between Yachina Lighthouse and Heceta Head Lighthouse with Cape Perpetua and a lot of other really cool places nearby.

Along the South Coast Bandon and Brookings/Harris beach sound like good spots as home bases to explore from.

Thanks again for all the help.

Oh - as another option to Waldport - consider slightly south at Yachats.. I really recommend a stay at the http://www.terry-a-while.com/ in one of their 4-plexes.. a funny name, but the accomodations are great!

I've stayed at Cape Lookout State Park and enjoyed it. Although the one time I visited I wasn't happy with the morning light, I think some of the vistas looking south from a short way out the Cape Lookout trail have promise (the photo above gives a rough idea).

If you're into the sweeping vista thing, another place on my list to visit again and photograph is The Nature Conservancy's Cascade Head. (Here is TNC's page for Cascade Head) It should have nice flowers in May. When I explored it, I was there when the light wasn't good, but I'll post an example photo below (a self-portrait I took so I could show the family one of the cool places I had been ).

South from Cascade Head.

I'm not sure why you would want to omit Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. It is a destination all by itself with lots of varied habitats. There are also several USFS campgrounds there. Also, al;onge the coast various State Parks campgrounds have yurts.

John,

Thanks so much for the pics and link to Cascade Head! I have seen great pictures from that perspective before and always wondered how to get there. So this is a big help! I also found a killer sunset composition from from the beach at Cape Lookout on wikipedia of all places.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cape_Lookout_Evening.JPG

RL, I did think about the Dunes. I guess it just did not rise to the top of places I want to see the most. There are a bunch of places that are going to have to wait for another trip. For example I also wanted to stop by Silver Falls SP on the way back from Crater Lake. But we will simply run out of time.

I do however really like getting additional ideas even if I can't do them all in one trip. Lets face it Oregon has tons of stuff to see and do if you love the outdoors which I do. This is also one of the reasons we are considering relocating.