South Fork Campground — Sequoia National Park

The road: you really need something with a bit of clearance and All Wheel or 4WD to get out here. Do not attempt a 2WD sedan.

The site: some of the sites can be right on to of each other, and peek season or summer it works probably feel very crowded. Mid week in March though and we had the place to ourselves for 3 days save for a few day hikers coming out for the trails.

There's plenty of day hiking to be found, the Ladybug Trail is easy enough for even casual hikers (the a few bits of elevation) and has a great location about 3 miles on for lunch and nap on the rocks. We stayed at site 4 and there are a couple great spots for hammocks though the fire pit is awkwardly placed around rocks.

Great place though, and for 6 bucks a night, a steal.

There were no other people at this camp ground. Maybe it was the somewhat treacherous drive in (6 miles of steep winding one lane gravel/dirt road) don't look down if you have a fear heights! Maybe it was the cooler December temperatures. If you go your reward is solitude and a clean out house. Site 5 was large and grassy. There were spaces for two trucks to park and two tents could also be set up. There were plenty of cow poop piles on the camp site, must be a grazing area? The South Fork River could be heard from every campsite here. Due to the way it is nestled in the hills the campsite looses direct sunlight in early afternoon.

My fiancé and I stumbled on the campsite because Sequoia NP is temporarily closed due to the fires.

The pictures shown don’t portray the site. There aren’t Sequoias at the actual site.

This campsite is accessible from South Fork Rd, which you do not have to enter the park to get into but the site is actually considered to be part of Sequoia NP.

We decided not to stay at the site but definitely have plans to in the future. It’s right by the river but not accessible from the campsite. This site is also super secluded but does have fire rings and Bear lockers.

There were also signs that said it was an active Bear area but not too sure how active the bears are there. There were also tons of mosquitoes, since it is right by the river. We also actually crossed paths with two tarantulas, one on the way to the site and one on the way out (different parts of the road).

Something to note is that the road to the campsite starts off paved then turns into a dirt road. The road is narrow and once you get closer to the site the road gets rocky and bumpy. I would highly recommend a car with 4WD and some clearance. I would also advise that if you’re not experienced with off roading, this road isn’t for you. I thankfully had my Jeep and fiancé who is seasoned in off roading.

I hope this review was helpful!

Obviously the draw here are the must-see towering wonders, the Giant Sequoia. But, camping can be an experience too. Well-maintained campsites provide a great place to recover after the taxing hike at altitude.

So I gave it an extra star because the closer you get, the more beautiful the scenery - but I never made it all the way. The description of the road is a bit deceptive. There’s 7+ miles paved but bumpy, tight turns, and quite a bit is barely one car wide. People were polite about working it out to get around each other but I also almost got hit head on as this guy came around a corner too fast and even after aimed right at me, apparently didn’t see me until I hit my horn so he didn’t ram me. He apologized but seriously if I hadn’t honked, I’m not sure I’d be typing this. So you struggle up all that and get not “almost” to the campground, but 3+miles out when the dirt road starts. I’m in an SUV so not a low clearance vehicle and I’m often driving at about 5-7 miles per hour for most of that to avoid hitting every rock, pothole, etc. I kept counting down how much further as it was closing in on 40 minutes for having covered maybe 8-10 miles. Despite it being a difficult drive, I was confident I could make it how things were going. I’m finally glad to see that i have only 1/2 more mile to go only to see what looks like God, Itself, took a jackhammer to the road and threw out about half the pieces leaving large ruts and holes between large rocks that are sticking up all over the road. I really wanted to keep going but with over 8 miles of no cell reception and not having seen anyone else for the last few miles, I made the incredibly frustrating decision to back up until I could find somewhere to turn around and go back to start. No passing go. No collecting $200. Just no campsite and a wasted hour and a half or so in total. I really believe without monster truck type tires, I’d have either embedded a huge rock into a tire and been stuck or had a tire get lodged between a couple rocks and been stuck. It’s great to be near sequoia national park but if no one hears from you until they send a search party, it doesn’t do you much good.

This is a wonderful campground I’m late fall to mid spring. Too hot in the summer. This is a very small campground and has several trail heads from it. It’s in sequoia national park but low in elevation, ~1500’. It’s pretty secluded and quite the times I’ve been there.