portland, or to san francisco lodging
 

My daughter and I will be travelling from Portland, OR to San Francisco in August. Probably using both I5 and 101. We were thinking of two overnight stops. One around Grants Pass and the other Mendocino (maybe). I am a little wary about booking hotels in advance, since we are unfamiliar with this drive. What is the likelihood of finding hotels along the way without reservations?

topping

I would probably reserve ahead. my reason for saying this is that a couple of summers ago, I had planned a hiking trip near Lake Shasta. Instead I got hit by some off duty loggers and had to retreat to Redding where I got the LAST hotel room in town. I was greatly suprised by this, but the desk clerk said that August is a pretty busy time up there.

On weekdays you might be okay on the coast, but weekends you need 3 weeks advance.

In the old days before I knew about planning ;) we took a driving trip down the Oregon coast starting in Newport with no real plan. We had no problems finding places to stay along the way. This was during the week after Memorial Day though.