Upper Stony Creek Campground — Sequoia National Forest

Beautiful campsite with a really nice creek right behind the camp sites. Clean bathrooms for pit toilets. Really nice camp hosts as well.

You Guys. This place was so magical I can't even, I don't even... there are no words. Specifically our site (cough, 12, cough), which was by far the best site: hugging the creek, hidden by gigantic boulders. This campground has a wonderful forest/mountain atmosphere, tumbling water for white noise, wildlife, granite slides, pools of blue water, trout fishing, and the best tasting drinking water I’ve ever had in my life. Oh and it’s a short distance from the biggest trees in the world. I’d live here if I could. This place is more magical than Hogwarts. I can't even believe my luck that we were able to reserve a spot here and stay here. 

Okay enough gushing. This campground is small and on a super rutted road so everyone has to drive super slow. No car noise. Also all the people were really quiet too. There are two single vault toilets in the campground. The water, like I said earlier, is not only potable but absolutely delicious. There is no cell service. If you drive north on the highway for 10 minutes or so, you'll find a couple pull-offs with enough service to connect to the rest of the world if you need to. The host was super friendly; her spot is over at regular Stony Creek Campground across the highway. 

The granite slides and pools don't have a clear path to get to.  You kind of have to slip through other sites farther towards the hike-in sites to get to, which was uncomfortable. Usually there was an open site that we could go through. But accessing the creek is also not easy in these areas... there's some scrambling, so be prepared. Also in that direction is a trailhead into a designated wilderness area. I wish we'd had the time to take it.

Also, let it be said that in some publications it can seem like they are stating that there are pay showers for public use at Stony Creek Lodge. This is NOT the case. There are no showers anywhere in the park area. Luckily, Upper Stony Creek Campground DOES allow privacy tents. 

More information in the photo/video captions!

Great place restrooms clean place

We really had no clue which campgrounds to choose on our Kings Canyon and Sequoia trip so this was a random choice! It seemed like popular crowded sites were all booked out. So I chose this one because it has a nice stream nearby, it's so nice to camp near water. It was sparsely crowded, very quiet. It's a beautiful wooded campsite with spacious sites and small trails nearby. A bit of a drive from the national parks, but I think everything is a bit of a drive around these areas. It was still fairly central between the two national parks relatively. 

Easy to reserve online, picnic table, bear/food bin and firepit at each site. I liked that the firepits each had a grill on top! So convenient for cooking. Typical pit toilets close by with water spigots to wash hands and dishes. We most enjoyed having morning coffee and walking along the stream over the large boulders. It was summer so we appreciated this site at higher elevation with the chilled air at night. Very beautiful.

Long drive through the Sequoias to get here, but worth it. Site was freshly raked and clean. Firewood could be purchased for $8 a bundle. There is plenty of wood laying around, along with pine cones, so we didn’t need the bundle. Slept just uphill from the river and it was great fall asleep to that sound. Get there early as it fills up fast.

Fun story - we spent the entire prep for this trip thinking we had booked a campground at Sequoia Nat parks Lodgepole campgrounds - which has its own market and visitors center, with shuttles and lots of great, well known hikes around it. We soon found that it was not the case, and after about an hour of runaround trying to figure out what our campsite was (without WiFi) we finally discovered our camp was about 5 miles down Generals highway in the National Forrest. We pulled up to our much more remote campsite only temporarily bummed, because our camp host came over as soon as we got there and she was SO KIND and very informative. She asked about our trip and shared some hidden gems about this campground - like no bear sightings all summer 👍🏻 and the PERFECT little stream with pooling water just next door! it’s was soooo magical and refreshing. The campground itself was small, which I loved (less noise from other campers) and the bathrooms were convenient without being too close (basically glorified portas). We had plenty of space for our two tents and the water was close. Also, our camp host had firewood right there for us to purchase. I would recommend this site over some of the major sites any day! It was so nice to have a quiet place to come back to after a long hike without any lines or inconveniences.

Wonderful camp hosts...entire site had been raked and fire pit cleaned. We had a site near the road but nose wss nonexistent.

We tent camped here. It is beautiful! Spots are very private. Lots of trees for shade, close to the creek, short walk to the village where there is a store, restaurant, gift shop, showers. Also: lots of wildlife! There are bear boxes in every campsite use them! We saw multiple animals everyday. Nightly campground visitors are deer and sometImes bear in the summer. There is a great ranger program in the village for kids! The hike to the waterfall is easy for kids and the trailhead is in the campground. Campground is a short drive to many other trailheads in the park.

We spent 5 days here and it was a perfect location for what we wanted to do - go to Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Jennie Lakes Wilderness. I would definitely stay here again, great place for tent camping - quiet, well-maintained and clean, fairly spacious sites. The hosts were awesome, there are nearly 50 sites in this campground - yet the hosts freshly raked each one before the new campers arrived. How nice is that! It was not too crowed, and the sound of streams running nearby was the main noise - no traffic noise. Unlike the upper Stony creek across the way, this had flush toilets and drinking water.

Pay showers, general store, and gas are just a few files away.

Sequoias are always my favorite and this time the first of many campgrounds. Stony Creek is super easy to get to and right up the street from Stony Creek Village where there are showers and a little market/ gift shop and restaurant and gas. Very convenient. The campground itself only offers the bathrooms. Our site was right next to a wall of boulders that you could climb out onto and see the stars and when we were having breakfast a group of deer came to see what we were doing and we're obviously regulars. The campground is also about a half mile hike from the big falls and with some effort just follow the creek until it turns into the falls. There's no actual trail so you have to make your own route but so worth it. Lodgepole is of course the hotspot of the Sequoias but this site is just as good. I'd camp there again without hesitation.

We stayed at Upper Stoney Creek for 2 nights. We were very pleased with the help the host provided us when we needed a camping spot last minute. Many camp grounds were overbooked and we were at a loss. We were able to tuck our tent back by some shaded trees and directly behind our site was Stoney Creek. There were lots of areas to swim and wade which was helpful with the warm weather. It was comviently located to the main road for trail access. It was also less than 1 mile from a small station with amentities such as gas, ice, food, drinks, ATM, and bathrooms. There are no shower facilities and upper Stoney Creek but there were composting bathrooms that were kept fairly clean.

About 45 minutes drive into Sequoia National Forest, you find yourself at this spacious campsite...and yes, no cell phone service! You're surrounded by forest so there's bear lockers and you'll need some bug spray. The mosquitos like it out there. It's not too bad though. There's running water there. Well kept and the Rangers have a little classroom area where they have Bear Safety talks, trail info, lessons, all for free! The bathrooms were fine.