Auxiliary Dam Recreation Site

This place is right off of Hwy 178 and you can camp right next to the water's edge but there is 24/7 dam construction with bright lights and loud machinery at all hours so be aware that it is not very peaceful at this time. Not really sure how long construction will be going on or what exactly they are doing but it looked like a fairly large project.

This recreation site accepts multiple passes including Southern Sierra Daily or Annual passes available for purchase there at the kiosk or any of the Interagency Passes (annual, senior, access, volunteer or military). A daily pass is $10 otherwise no extra fee if you have any of the other passes.

There are multiple criss crossing roads to choose from (see Google Earth view). The roads are sand and dirt in varying degrees of depth with some of the roads having deep ruts from runoff. We discovered nails in the morning near where we parked which we did not see when we arrived near dark, otherwise no other trash laying around.

The area is wide open with zero privacy or shade, but you can be so close to the water and the surrounding views of the mountains are awesome. There are dumpsters scattered about but no recycling. The bathrooms were closed due to Covid but there were porta potties. Potable water spigots can be found near the bathrooms. There is also a new RV dump station on Old Isabella Road Recreation site just up the road to the east that has a self pay that gives you a code to unlock the dump cover. $10 to dump. The water spigot there had a sign "non potable water".

Fires and stove fires are allowed with a fire permit only which can be obtained online at preventwildfireca.org or at the local ranger station. The town of Lake Isabella nearby has gas stations and stores for supplies. We saw only one boat and a bunch of kayak fishermen, as well as people fishing from the shoreline. Not sure if this is a stocked lake or how busy it gets in the summer with boaters.

Good cell service with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile

Overall a good place to stay, and we would have stayed longer than the one night we stayed if it were not for the construction noise.  Would stay again if going through this area.