Good places for FREE camping in Oregon?

I don't mean to sound mean, but it really isn't much to spend $10-$15 a night on a camp site. The coast is especially difficult because pretty much every piece of land you could camp on is either regulated or privately owned. All of the free places I have camped, you need to hike quite a ways into or they are well off the beaten path, either in a large National Forest or Central/Eastern Oregon. If you really want to find a place, there are lots of primitive campgrounds in the Mt Hood National Forest, which is maybe an hour or so from Portland. I have camped or slept in the bed of my truck many times in different spots up there. However, I would recommend reserving a tent site at Fort Stevens at the coast. It is a huge place, has showers, flush toilets and it has easy access to the beach, plus it's close to Seaside, Canon Beach, Astoria, Long Beach, Washington and a lot of other places. You used to be able to camp on the beach for free, but too many parties screwed that up. In the past, I drove on Del Ray Beach and camped. You can still drive on it. I did a quick search and found a dude that lists a lot of free "campgrounds" all over the country, by state (lots listed in Oregon). Most of them are primitive areas or sites in Eastern or Central Oregon, but if you absolutely have to sleep for free, here you go:

Many of the national forests have free camping. Very few of these sites are organized, more just a spot or two a couple of hundred feet off the highway. Like the BLM sites, they are very primitive, typically with a firepit at most. Your free options in the Portland area/ Willamette valley are going to be very limited as it is mostly private property. In Oregon you can overnight at interstate rest areas, but you cannot set-up any camping gear. Turnouts on the coast are generally well marked where you are not permitted to camp making it easy to know where not to stay. Another idea would be to get an atlas that includes forest service roads (they can be tricky to find and easy to get lost on without a proper map), that will increase your access exponentially as many of those roads you can go a mile or so it, camp and never see anyone.

the free sites are crap spend the 15bucks for a nice site. some places may seem free but you need a pass be careful. rude i know but i don't want to tell you where i camp because i don't want it to get over crowded from out of towners who never pack out their supplies and litter.

Most of what you are going to find for free campsites are going to be in the Cascade Mountains and Eastern Oregon. If you want to drive up the coast, spend the money to pay for a campsite. Many of the state parks have campgrounds with showers. The ones my husband and I go to are like Honeyman state park, Sunset Bay state park, Fort Stevens, Bullards Beach state park. If you go to oregon state parks and recreation website, they will list all the campgrounds they have and you can reserve several campsites with just one phone call or on their online reservations. I would give them a call so that you can let them know that you want to reserve a campsite at each of the campgrounds that you would like to stay at. I know that from Fort Stevens, if you want to visit Portland, just take highway 26 or highway 30 eastbound. Highway 30 will be less of a hassle for you as highway 26 is a bear to deal with. Sunset Bay State Park is my favorite place to stay and it is beautiful. There are also some campsites offered by Oregon Fish & Wildlife or BLM along the coast highway that you can stay as as well for a low price but you won't have the nice warm showers to use that the state parks have. Another nice place to camp at is at the Umpqua Lighthouse (state park). Check it out and hope this helps.