Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Bakersfield, CA

Tried this campground out for a single day/night of camping for my family of 4.

Location - 5 out of 5 Great location in terms of close to home (40 minutes from Bakersfield). 1.5 miles from Pyramid Lake for a day trip.

Campground - 3 out of 5. $20 per night, by all means, this is only regards to the tent camping not the people or bathrooms etc. We camped in Loop 4 camp 72. While I was towards the end of the campground, very little shade was available. Prepare to bring multiple ezups for shade. Tent was easily put up as ground is soft. This camp was overrun by fire ants, so had to carefully move around their nest. There was a small section in between some trees that allowed us to get some shade, maybe even a small tent fits there. Bathrooms are flush toilets and very clean. No showers available to my knowledge. Camping came with a cement picnic table and a fire pit.

The 2 points off was just because of the shade situation. I did go through the campground all together to see which sites were more shaded and out of all of the sites perhaps 4 had some trees with good shade.

If you are looking for a weekend getaway from the city, good place to come. Just come prepared with multiple shade apparatus.

**My pictures were taken after 6pm when the sun is behind the mountains.

It took two tries to finally make it here. Our motorhome slide refused to slide. But a month later we made it. Feb 3 and it’s 70 degrees. Nice soft breeze. No pool. But our fur kids said the TWO dog parks made up for it. Judith the resident staff person was a ROCKSTAR in getting our reservations changed and rebooked. The spaces and long and plenty of side room for slides.. that you know…. Slide Definitely making this a come back to park.

This is our go to spot just to get out and camp for a night without going far! Beautiful hikes with tons of scenic outlooks. Kid and pet friendly, never crowded it seems so you can also have some privacy. Great camp site and well maintained. We love it!

This camp was great! I'm glad to know that they don't have the blue green algae the is very toxic to children and animals. Makes it nice to know that I can take my pets with me to the lake so that way they can have fun to. We brought our RV and we pulled in very late at night. But it worked out because we were able to park in a spot and hook up to the power and then pay for the spot in the morning.

If you must go through Bakersfield and rest your head somewhere for the night, this is your best bet! Large campsites, very friendly host and no oil fields in sight 😂

Showers are kept fairly clean, and a creek runs right through :)

We had site 117 and it was a nice spot with no fire pit. Full hookups and really I can’t imagine you could have a nicer park in Bakersfield. They did a great job! Only minor thing is the wifi did not work reliably for my son’s online school. My son and I enjoyed free orange picking though!

We pulled in here to see if we could use the dump and fill our water tank. The park is set up in a u-shape. The road coming in is tight but doable, but once you turn the corner to head out we almost got stuck and had to back our way out!  The turn is so tight, we had to move some decorative rocks just to be able to turn the corner.  Driving out we were able to talk with someone right from her living room window - that's how tight the road was.  We asked if the manager was around because we're looking for a place to dump.  She responded that he wasn't here and as far as the dump "it ain't gonna be here!"

She had to move her flags out of the way so we could squeeze by.

We did see a laundry room on site and lots of stray cats.

This whole facility is a type of mixed use living situation, with RV and trailer spots as well as apartments all in the same place.

Would not recommend.

We pulled in a little later than we had expected... you know how it is! They had our arrival package tapped to the door of the office for us with a site map, facilities, and wifi. When turning off the main road you are thinking to yourself "... Mmmm where is this taking me", but once you get to the entrance you will find a really nice park with great facilities. Pulling in at night was a breeze. Oh, and all the hookup stations for power, water, and sewage had little stands with lighting so you didn't have to hold the flashlight in your teeth. I highly recommend staying at River Run in Bakersfield.

Bakersfield River Run RV Park has to be one of the nicest, most well-managed, and well organized RV parks anywhere in the country! With a beautiful pool and hot tub as well as impeccably clean bathrooms, showers, and laundry...we were able to replenish our resources, regroup and get in some much needed R&R time! An added bonus is a well stocked camp store and ‘across the street’ location from a Cosco! This RV park is surely a hidden gem in a crown of thorns...on our way from Pinnacles National Park to Red Rock Canyon State Park and ultimately Joshua Tree National Park, this was a perfect place to luxuriate and take a breather! I only wish the owners could establish identical RV parks everywhere throughout the U.S.A.!

The "Town"

In 1908, former slave Colonel Allen Allensworth and four other African Americans founded the town of Allensworth in the San Joaquin Valley of California. According to wikipedia, it is "the only California town to be founded, financed and governed by African Americans." At its height, the town included 200 people and a library, post office, barbershop, store, hotel, schoolhouse, church, and numerous other homes and farming buildings.

Water for the town, however, began to try up as other farms "upstream" increased demand and by the time of the Great Depression, public services such as the post office began to shut down and many residents had to move away to find work. Despite hard times, the "town that refused to die" still had a population of 90 in 1972, though within a few years that had dropped to almost zero.

Due to the town's historical significance and a public campaign to save the town, in 1976 Allensworth became a state historic park. Nowadays, many of the buildings have been restored and are available for public tours along with the addition of a visitor center and 15 campsites.

The Campground

The campground is set off at the back of the historic town and was completely deserted when we arrived on a warm summer day in June, including empty spots where camp hosts would have been. Self registration is easy though (just $20) and the town itself had rangers and volunteers in the visitor center for any questions. Bathrooms with flush toilets, free showers, water fountains and an area to wash dishes were ridiculously clean. The camp sites had concrete pads for RVs, picnic tables with covers, and a couple of water faucets, though no electricity or water hookups except for in the camp host spots. The area is hot and dry in the summer with few trees, so the shade covers over the picnic tables are helpful. There’s also an RV dump for an additional $10.

The Weird and The Awesome

I absolutely loved this campground and learning about the town history. It’s quirky, interesting, and such an odd thing to find in the middle of nowhere-California between Fresno and Bakersfield. It also felt completely deserted, like a ghost town, despite rangers and the occasional tour bus coming through. The big open spaces, dust, and sparse amount of trees adds to its otherworldly-ness. If you find yourself anywhere near here, definitely worth a stop. Or if not, their website includes much more information about the history including a virtual tour and is worth a look: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=583

Campground has three separate site loops with about 90 Dry Camp camp locations. Water spigots are available in some areas, but not for permanent hookup. I was here in November and it was pretty empty except for the weekend. Some people changed their minds about camping as often in California, there is high risk of fire and no campfires or BBQ's were allowed.

Common areas and every other site was closed due to Covid restrictions. Camp host was very friendly. Some nice hills for hiking and Pyramid lake was close by, paid access to the lake was not included in campground fees.

Restrooms are available and cleaned daily.

I enjoyed my stay here and there was plenty of room for walking my dogs.

Awesome free campground! Vault toilets and running water. Dog that rolls through in the mornings makes for beautiful scenery. Would come back!