Tillie Creek

The creek was running which made it nice to cool down. Not the best kept grounds I'd say, overgrown weeds, and shrubs. Half the camp ground is closed. No showers are available as they used to be and toilets are now vault toilets only, but they were clean (fairly new). The camp host was a nice gentleman, he cruises the grounds often. Lake was pretty full so you're not far from water. Fish cleaning station was nearby. Dump station was not open either. The place simply needs some love. Most sites lack shade, though the few that do offer shade get you close to the road and road noise can be loud. I've camped this place through the years, it's what you would expect for the area. There is water but some faucets were non-working. Stores are nearby, a few convenience stores walking distance, a Vons in the town of Isabella not far away. Kernville is nearby and there's all sorts of good eats and cool small town. You will need a fire permit, they're free, and take the test online. Camp host will ask.

So it’s fair to say we do quite a bit of camping around and unfortunately by far Tillie Creek did not have our love. We did our research beforehand (because we’re camping nerds like that) and reserved site 40 because it showed the most shade along with the more private of the sites.

Get to the site to find out the camp host does not enforce reservations. In fact has a sign up front saying you get what you get, even if you paid $30 a night for a specific spot....? Oh also, once the main loop 1-75 is full those sites on the secondary loop 76+ are so poorly maintained you are likely to do some slight to significant damage to your vehicle just to try to get out of the loop. PS the whole loop is mono directional so it’s not like you can decide f-it halfway through. Don’t want to go down the wrong loops? Too bad, there is no site map on site and the roads are poorly marked, maintained, lit, with no signage (for example site 6, 13, 46, and 23 are all next to each other 🤷🏽‍♂️🤦🏽).

Finally got “assigned” a site 60, which is halfway used by a group on neighboring site 68, but its ok because they “technically aren’t using all of it”....? This was a random 90+ degree weekend in July with no holiday around. So campfires are banned and they threaten to enforce. Makes perfect sense, we understand. So why at midnight are there 5 different sites having parties so loud with boom boxes that no one can sleep having fires and drunken yelling/singing? Because the camp host simply clearly could not care less.

Algae bloom was in full effect with multiple warnings on the state and ranger websites and at the boat launches. The walk up trail from the camp grounds? No warning or notification even though that site had been deemed dangerous for contact a week before. Campsite was completely littered with trash (wrappers, red solo cups, plastic everywhere, etc) when we got there, but don’t worry the site controllers will come by and warn you if you don’t it clean up, its a $500 fine on you. Thankfully had pictures upfront, they seemed less than happy about not being able to pawn cleanup on the next person. All in all the campground has a lot it could offer, but its poor management and maintenance make $30 a night a joke. We skipped our second day entirely and went dispersed in the National Forest, much better!

Even at 3,000 feet it can get very very hot here. Good thing it is at Lake Isabella so you can cool off! Feels great to take a dip!