The Dyrt is here to help plan your best camping near Inyokern. Enjoy the scenic camping, fun activities, and sights and sounds of Inyokern. Get the dirt on all the best camping near Inyokern. Browse campgrounds by amenities, site types, and more.
$39 - $340 / night
"All sites are well kept, with access to clean bathrooms and coin operated showers. Staff is friendly and available when needed. Prices are a tad high but expected with a clean upscale Campground."
"Clean showers and bathrooms. Polite guests. Respectable to after hour policies. Ground keepers make sure everyone is happy. Full hook up sites make it easy. Shaded tent sites make it comfortable."
"Laundry right on site! Close to lake Isabella and all of the Kern. Great for last minute reservations too, online booking works"
"Kern River is a great place in the hot California Desert. This place has everything to make you feel at home."
$34 - $147 / night
"there is only one place for trash upon exit), but every site has a beautiful view of the mountainside and the stars, and if you get one of the good sites along the river, you're a few steps from the best"
"Camp 3 is a good location if you can book it quickly outside of the Summer months."
"We arrived on Sunday afternoon. The weekend crowd was moving out. We had the campground A Loop to ourselves. Really nice to be out of the Valley heat."
"Very beautiful well kept supposedly it had just opened an hour or two before I arrived after being closed for two years. Great campground"
$54 - $250 / night
"The campsites were clean and spacious, the bathrooms were sanitary and showers were hot. Only downside happen to be the on-site general store was shut down the whole weekend."
"Beautiful nice place Close to the river"
$34 - $36 / night
"I do a lot of camping, this one is a great campground if you want to go swimming, waterskiing, windsurfing, fishing, or just enjoy the beautiful scenic views of Lake Isabella."
$34 - $106 / night
"A nice secluded campground up the river from kern’s more populated sites, in the heart of the Sequoia National Forest."
$57 - $232 / night
"At one point we even ran out of TP and had to drive to the neighboring campground down the road to ask the host there for some more rolls, which she happily provided."
"Porta-potties were kept clean and trash was emptied from large trash containers regularly.
Bears are common in the area and there are no bear lockers for food. So keep this in mind."
GuideOverall nice site with full hookups & wi-fi/cell. Had a nice shade tree but it can be real sunny without one. Laundry right on site! Close to lake Isabella and all of the Kern. Great for last minute reservations too, online booking works
LegendKern River is a great place in the hot California Desert. This place has everything to make you feel at home. Several large sites for tents or RV's , bathrooms with full showers, a pool, splashpad and water play area. They have these weird Banana bikes which were fun. I was in complete heaven when I saw the coffee bar! There is a big pavilion with cooking areas for everyone!
This is close to several nearby attractions. They offer great wifi services. Great places if you have little ones. so much to do and all of the staff was wonderful.
They have Cabins too! I didnt stay in them but they are pretty cute.
GuideWhile our first impressions were terrible (we did not love our originally reserved site - #33), once we moved to another available spot and started exploring, we ended up having the time of our lives.
The campground itself left a lot to be desired (lots of trash, half the sites are extremely rocky / sandy with little shade, some sites have rotting or broken picnic benches and very little privacy, and there is only one place for trash upon exit), but every site has a beautiful view of the mountainside and the stars, and if you get one of the good sites along the river, you're a few steps from the best part during the summer: swimming in the Kern River.
We stayed at site #29, where (like sites #25, #27, #28 & #30), there were nice, flat, soft surfaces to pitch your tent under the trees just beyond where you park your vehicles for privacy and shade. From these gems, the river is just a short, 1 or 2 minute walk to the River. Though nice to be near the water spouts and bathrooms, we would not recommend sites (#3-19, #22, #24, #26) Further down the river, we noticed that sites opened up a bit more and had much more space and shade, AND that the river was a lot closer - all great for larger groups and especially those with children. If we were to come back, we'd probably choose site #47 which had two shaded, flat places right near the site and was only a few steps from the river - which had a nice shaded space for chairs along it. Only downside for being on the end is that you're next to the Day Use entry point from the road.
GuideStayed here on July 4th weekend. Campground is small and there was plenty of day traffic to the Trail of 100 giants across the road. No running water and has pit toilets but camp hosts kept them VERY clean and they were very helpful and managed the crowds well. Definitely have to drive around to hunt for some water to hangout in/by. I usually stay on the eastern Sierra side but thought I’d give the western Sierra a go. Not sure I’d stay again but it’s a good spot if your passing by and need a place to stay on way to your destination.
GuideThe camp hosts, Michelle and Darren were wonderful. Kept things clean and were on top of managing the campground. I only give this three stars because there was no running water and the location was quiet but there wasn’t much to do unless you’re an avid hiker. There was no cell service with Verizon but that’s why we get away right? It was directly across from the trail of 100 giants which was highly trafficked every day. We stayed in site 9 and if you have a back in trailer, you may want to drive in the wrong direction to be able to angle things properly. Overall nice campground and enjoyed exploring this little piece of heaven.
RangerReview
Made reservation on Recreation.gov. Arrived at 4pm. Sites are said to be assigned upon arrival. Camp host was the only tent found pitched in the entire campground. It’s during the pandemic and some places are closed. Campground sign said full. Yelled to see if anyone was there in the campsite and no answer from the camp host. Left a voicemail with campground to let them know my name and reservation info and I have was going to look for a spot. Picked a spot with shade - very few available. Some trees, but not large Sequoias like you may expect since it’s near the Sequoia National Forest. This place is desert hot and might be a bit miserable for folks to just hangout here. There’s no hookups. It’s near Lake Isabella. Went to bed and didn’t see a camp host that evening. ANTS!! So many ants in my camper in the morning. Ack!! Talked to a waitress in town and she says the campground I was at is known for an ant problem. Had to get diatomaceous earth at the hardware store in town along with ant traps galore now that my camper was overrun. Find out from the locals this campground has a reputation for being bad. I had to reconsider my plan to stay there and went elsewhere... so frustrating.
GuideOur experience here was really frustrating for multiple reasons, but for the sake of this review I will try to highlight what is important for other campers to know. We had a bad experience from the beginning when we arrived at Hungry Gulch and were blown off by the camp host for asking who we could ask some questions of since we had made a reservation online at Recreation.gov and it was unclear what to do since there are not assigned camp spots. Since we had a kayak lesson to get to we called the Sequoia Recreation line and were told that we could pick any empty campsite, put our tent there and then it was OK to leave and the camp host would come along later to check our reservation (again which was done online so we had no other proof besides our email). We pitched our tent, went off for our kayak lessons, and when we got back to the campsite around 9 pm there was another family in our site and our tent was gone! The camp host took down our tent and gave our spot to someone else because we "didn't have the proper tag and hadn't checked in with him,"which of course we tried to do. So, I had to go find him and explain to him how I had done exactly what I was told by Sequoia Recreation and then he had to drive around for 15 minutes to find us a new spot and didn't even offer to help us put our tent back up that he had taken down (at what was now almost 10 pm). We were surrounded by people playing really loud music on a speaker on one side, another group that was drunkenly yelling on another and loud road noise. Someone came around the sites at like 10 pm and of course everyone was quiet for all of 5 minutes and then we didn't see anyone else after that checking on things. At 12:30 am we had enough, asked both groups to be quiet and while it helped some, both were still making lots of noise. After a long day of kayaking I was exhausted and gave up. We packed up our site at almost 1 am and left out of sheer frustration and ended up having to get a hotel in Bakersfield just to get some sleep. Beware of this campground and know that they're tricky with their sites. There are not a ton of bathrooms and the sites on the periphery of the campground are really close to the road with lots of noise. There are some sites with shade but not many. I am giving it 2 stars for location and proximity to Kern River activities and Lake Isabella.
GuideCamped here a couple times with a college group, once in the fall and once in the fall. The Kern River valley is definitely more of a summer destination, because on both occasions camping here our group was the only group in the campground. There are a few different group sites available, with varying group size limitations. When we camped, only a single porta potty was provided which sort of worked with a smallish group, but if we had more people it would have been an issue. At one point we even ran out of TP and had to drive to the neighboring campground down the road to ask the host there for some more rolls, which she happily provided. Also keep in mind there is no running water at al here. Either bring your own or filter/boil the river water. Camping in the off season was nice because it felt so isolated, and our group had a good time. The campground is right up against the river so you will definitely hear it roaring at night. There are many hikes to do in the valley, especially if you drive north. The town of Kernville is also 10 minutes to the south and has a grocery store, gas station, and even a brewery! Overall this campground was really relaxing, and had some awesome views of the towering peaks above the valley floor. I could definitely recommend this campground for a group trip.
GuideWe stayed in the heat of the summer so it was unfortunate that our campsites had little to no shade. We were on the outskirts closest to the road, but there were campsites along the river that had more trees. Once you get down to the water, the temperature drops at least 10 degrees.
Our site was VERY close to the main road which made me nervous with our young children. There are large boulders along the campground, but no fence or other kind of barrier. And the cars were hauling a** down that road.
There was a pit toilet a little bit across from our site that we could not smell but I believe the sites directly in front and behind probably got it bad. It was pretty gross. I can do pit toilets usually but these had me gagging at one point.
The water is just a short walk down some rocky trails, so would not be very good for elderly or very small children unless you plan on carrying them down. We found a little rocky beach area to camp for the day but it was just barely big enough for our group. There was not anywhere else that we could see that would have been good for swimming. There was a little rapid area with some waterfalls up river from us which was very pretty.
This river is notorious for sweeping people away so please be cautious and keep an eye on your children. We secured a paracord on each end of the river so we had something to help us float across. The current was strongest in the middle but manageable on either side.
The camp host was friendly enough but did not do rounds of any kind. There are also no fires allowed at this campground (at least not during the time we went).
We were warned of a resident bear that lives across the street but we did not encounter him or any other wildlife.
We probably will not be returning, especially not with the kids. But we still had a good time regardless.
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