Kern River Campground

We were here in February. Parking for the night costs $20, payment only by card, cash is not accepted. There are water taps around the campground (not near every site), a dump station, and a clean water refill at the exit. You can use the dump station separately for $10. There is a good road to the campsite, all parking places are paved, barbecue places and tables near each place. A crowd of rock squirrels )))) restrooms and shower on the territory are in good condition. It may be noisy in season.

Very cool beautiful views clean showers dump and water and trash privacy it 2as a 10 I'm definitely coming back. It's pay online only through parks and recs.

This is a real hidden treasure. For $18 a night (senior citizen rate), you can camp right along the Kern River with firepits, picnic tables, toilets, and showers. The campground is only about 10 miles from Bakersfield.

We planned our route south to avoid the Grape Vine, came east of Bakersfield to go toward the I-15 instead. Stopped here for three days. Small county park along a section of the Kern river. It's low this time of year. Across the river are private residences, mostly horse property. All sites are pull-thru and half end up with your door facing the road. The only solution is to ignore the one-way signs and go the wrong way to your site to get in properly. They don't seem to care, everyone here does it. But it's a narrow road, so make sure someone else isn't on the road when you do it. Within minutes of puling in a camp host came around and checked us in on her tablet and gave us our paperwork. It was $12 per night plus an $8 junk fee to make the reservation, but then I got hit with $5 per day for my dog. So it was $42 for 2 nights. Then wife changed route and we added a day here, so paid another $12 plus $8 for the third day. This is just a party place for locals. Very few RV's here, mostly locals in tents. Generators running all day and night, inflatable movie screens, thumping loud music, people shouting and screaming, getting drunk. Trash all over the ground, graffiti. We got here on a Friday around noon. I checked the bathrooms and they were clean. But by that evening after the locals arrived they were dirty, trash everywhere, no TP, and the locks didn't work. Never got cleaned all weekend. Friday and Saturday night were noisy until after midnight. No one enforces rules. Sunday morning there was a fight amongst the locals, everyone started leaving right away before the police showed up. First time I saw a law enforcement ranger in the park was 2 hours after the fight. At least Sunday night was quiet. Bathrooms didn't get 'cleaned' until Monday. And then it was just a hose down. Walls and ceilings still dirty. Trees are a problem here. There are a few smaller trees with branches that scrape you as you drive the park. But They are tall and block much of the sun. So the lack of solar charge meant that we had to move on after 3 days. We did get satellite signal most of the time except when it was windy. After all the riff-raff left on Monday the place was a disaster. Even more trash everywhere. And a ratty king sized mattress dropped by a trash can. We had a site next to the river but the people here do not respect signs, fences, rules, laws, or other people's campsites. Constantly had people walking through our site to get to the river. And day use people and homeless trespass to use the bathrooms and showers, and picnic in campsites they've not paid for.

This place is beautiful, during summer the weather is 110, super heat. A man and a woman got drowned in this river by the strong currents this 4th of July…. do not underestimate this river, stay safe, do not swim in current. There are no bathrooms only portables. Gas griller only is permitted. Loud music everywhere, cool to have some great time with family and friends. Not a quiet place!