Best Cabin Camping near Los Banos, CA

If you’re doing the long drive from the Bay Area to LA, a nice place to stay is Mercey Hot Springs.  It takes about 20 minutes to get there from the freeway and is in the middle of nowhere.  Camping is $50 per person, but it gives you access to the pool and the hot tubs.  There are both clothing optional hot tubs and hot tubs for bathing suits.  The best campsites are the ones with no hook-ups.  They are under the trees and right next to the pool.  The RV sites with hook-ups are in an open field area with no tree cover.  There are also airstreams and cabins available to rent.  Camping gives you 24 hour access to the hot tubs.  There is no food available here and the closest town is 30 minutes away so be sure to come prepared.  There is also a sauna and a nice hike up in the hills.  Nice quiet place. Everyone is super chill and no one really bothers you about swimming after hours.

They have nice facilities and a heated pool although a hot tub would be nice also. The sites are a little small but very mature trees and they keep it clean. Some of the back in sites for tent trailer are a pain to get into but very nice setup with private dishwashing station and cook space. Bathroom is. Lean and nice club/game room and clean washing facility. Close to the highway with a fairly easy on and off the although it's a little confusing at first. All day/night highway noise but it starts to become white noise after a while. Staff are friendly and accommodating and quick to respond to any issues. Its got a grocery store nearby and the camp store is fairly complete as well. Not a lot of outdoor activities other than the pool and bags and the K9 trail, but pleasant to walk though. It is very hilly and steps are around to get between levels. After being here for 4 days, I would consider coming back again.

Highly recommended Pinnacles for families! There are lots of great hikes, a pool to swim on hot days, and so many stars at night. There is also a great camp store with everything you need - from food to cookware to cute t-shirts. And if your kid loves the junior ranger program as much as ours you can pick up your guide and badge at the visitor center.

It’s also a super short drive from the Bay Area which makes it an easy getaway during the school year.

The park is amazing and there are so many great hikes, wildlife viewing and picturesque landscapes!

The campground loop we were in was full and the sites are fairly close to your neighbor but it wasn't bad. The main reason being absolutely NO generators allowed so it was peaceful. The sites were semi private as the brush and trees have grown around most sites offering a little privacy. Other campers were friendly and considerate. Note that the RV side with the hook up does not offer any privacy and is near the main road. RVs are not confined to that area though.

The spots are flat and include fire pit, picnic table and food locker. Raccoons apparently are a big problem here so keep your food locked up. There is a small general store/visitor center with a variety of food items, stove fuel, firewood, general camping supplies and souvenirs. WiFi also available for $10 for 7days per device. We paid, but our T-Mobile hotspot with Weboost won out in the end because the WiFi did not reach our spot. There is better reception for the WiFI in other spots. No cell reception with AT&T or Verizon.

The hiking is great! and during the week pleasantly absent of tons of other hikers. Masks are required even on trails when 6 ft distance cannot be maintained, and people were very respectful of that on the trails. There is a lot of wildlife to see though sadly we did not see any condors on this trip. The caves are currently closed due to Covid. 

Other amenities:

Tent cabins

RV only loop with 30amp hook up only (no sewer or water hook up)

Showers

Bathrooms

Garbage and Recycling

RV dump station (flush water only)

Fresh water filler up (near RV camping area)

Group camping

Pool (currently closed)

Pets allowed but NOT allowed on any trails

Overall a great experience for a lesser known National Park, would come here again!

This National Park is unlike many we have stayed at in that they do have showers, a swimming pool, a store, lots of amenities, getting there is the hard part as it is in a very remote part of California. The park is known for the California condors and our hike didn’t disappoint as we saw many. The hike to the high peak was crazy!

This is only my 5th National park and was beautiful. Lots of wildlife visitor's. The Park is also home to the California Condor. Bummer that we didn't see any. RV spots have electric plug in. We stayed in a 30 amp spot.

Great place to hike, spectacular views. Rock climbers will enjoy the pinnacle rock formations. Talus caves add to the wonderful hikes and offer a refreshing break from the sun. Spring and fall best, summers are hot. You may also see a California condor overhead.

The Pinnacles Campground offers a variety of sections to fit the need of most every type of camper. There are two sections to the park - an east and a west side which are not connected very easily unless you hike through the Pinnacles themselves. However, the main Campground offers a ranger station and store that provides books, snacks, and information on the park. There is wifi and a pool and showers available. Sections include group sites (which were the ones I stayed at), good for families, school trips, or camps, and more family style camps, and places where you can glamp in your RV fully equipped with hook ups.

The pinnacles is unique because they are one of two spots in California where you can see the California Condors, a huge giant scavenging bird that almost became extinct. From the campsite you can watch them soar back to their roosts in the higher Pinnacles through binoculars. Truly a wonderful experience.

Cons: Watch out for the raccoons. They will eat everything you don't lock away!

I have to admit, I didn't even know Pinnacles NP exsisted. I'm glad I saw the sign and venture to check it out. It’s a beautiful park and has the largest population of California Condors in the world.

The campground is situated about 2.3 miles from the main trailheads. There's tent and RV campsites. It's a good campground with the NP visitor center located within the campground.

Note: There's only 30Amp service at the RV sites. Bring an adapter if you only have 50 or 20Amps.

We were suggested by the ranger to take a 9.5 mile hike to see the best of the park. included high peaks trail climbing steps carved into the rock in the 30's. And going through one of their caves (balconies cave) as the other was closed for bat breeding season. 1,500 elevation gain in the first few miles but totally worth it. With a few bathrooms along the way makes it very convenient if you need to stop. Overall an amazing hike and views of California condors when you get to the top.

Per my rating system, this is very close to being 5 stars, meaning it's worth planning a trip from out of state just to visit this park and surrounding national/state forest for 3 days or more  The only reason it's 4 stars instead of 5 is that Pinnacles isn't quite big enough to explore exclusively for a minimum of 3 days. You've got a solid and long day of hiking through the park (6 miles, but very intense and exposed). Then a half day of exploring the parts of the park you didn't get to on the hike  And then. . well, by then you've probably seen most of what is worth seeing in the park. So hop in the car and drive to Monterey.  Go to the aquarium, eat some seafood, and then drive back to Pinnacles (about 3 hours round trip, but worth it if you spend the whole day in Monterey).  This is the definition of 4 stars by my system: a park definitely worth visiting if its part of a larger trip to a region.  And for locals, this is a must-visit spot, a place that will be on the regular camping rotation.

The park, which is located in a tight valley in San Benito county, is a geologically unique spot nestled in oak studded rolling California coastal mountains. There are two entrances into the park, but the campground is only accessible from the Gilroy/Hollister side.  If you're coming from the Bay Area, take Hwy 101 through Gilroy and then get on Hwy 25 South. As you wind your way on Hwy 25, you pass ranch land and within 10 miles of getting off the freeway, you feel like you're pretty far away from it all. That's the thing about California.  Get off the main thoroughfares and out of the population centers, and things get rugged fast. In the days of trillion-dollar market caps for Silicon Valley technology companies, people often forget that California has a rich agricultural history. I've lived in California for going on 3 decades, and I sometimes wonder what the more quintessentially central California experience is: Shopping at the Apple Store in San Francisco and then dining at a fine restaurant as the fog rolls in, or buying produce from a farm stand in a valley bordered by rolling hills.  It's probably both. San Benito county is a great place to experience the latter.

What makes Pinnacles geologically unique is that the park is formed from bulbous rock formations.  These are somewhat reminiscent of what one would find in southern Utah, at a place like Arches. The main hike, which is a loop that begins and ends at the parking lot, takes you up the ridge line and then across the rock faces. It's an intense and fun hike. It's just under 6 miles, but it will take the entire day.  Pack a lunch and plenty of water.  There are no water sources on the trail.  If you're lucky, you'll see condors floating in the thermal currents.

Speaking of thermal currents, Pinnacles is extremely hot in the summer. I've never come here past April.  The winter is ideal for Pinnacles.  But if you are in the Bay Area in the summer, it's worth checking out.  But be prepared for heat.

There are two campgrounds loops: one is for RV's and the other is for tents and RV "dry camping" (i.e. no hookups). I was in the tent section, dry camping my Airstream. The RV loop is easy to get in and out of.  The loop I was in was a bit trickier - "blue square" difficulty level for a 28' trailer. I had a back-in spot, but the angle of the spot made it easy to back in.  The tricky part was that it was kind of narrow, with railroad ties on either side. It was a good spot, and I'd definitely take that one again. But, if you want full hookups on the RV loop, spots 50 and 51 are the ones to get.  Many of the spots on the RV loop were really exposed, and it can get hot in Pinnacles, even in the winter during the day.

As I mentioned in the introduction of this post, there is a lot to do within a 2-3 hour (round trip) drive of Pinnacles.  You could go up to the southern Bay Area.  You can go to Monterey.  You could go wine tasting in Paso Robles. This is a great place to plan a 3-4 night trip. It's always on my short list of places to go.

CAMPFIRES ARE NOT ALLOWED HERE. Not even in the fire rings at each site!

We enjoyed seeing LOTS of wildlife in Pinnacles from our campsite: California quail scurrying up a hill, mule deer, and raptors of all kinds. Lots of nocturnal animal activity! 

But the campsites themselves were dispersed around a parking lot -- not much more to it, and very little shade or barrier between sites. Quiet hours were not enforced at all. People were loud through the night.

Wrong name was written on our placard so we worried all night that someone would accuse us of taking their spot, even though we had reserved. and pre-paid for the one we were in. Camping host was indifferent to this error.

Great National Park, though, and seemed to be the only camping option in the area.

Good spot to explore Pinnicales National Park. Typical TT resort park off the beaten path, far out but nice place, we enjoyed our stay. At the time we were there a lot of the riverfront sports were out of order. Park does have a lot of those devil spikes in the grass so beware of those with the dogs or bare feet. I did see someone bare foot walking and I was confused as how he was not stepping on them little spiked mines/ thorns then it happened and he went down having to crawl back to the road and get shoes. Pinnacles NP has lots of great hikes, bird watching is a thing out here and home to the California Condors. Near the town of Gilroy home of the garlic festival. A little out of the way but a nice scenic backroad alternate from I5 or 99 if traveling north/south.

Campground Review:

Be sure to look at a map carefully and drive to the property side of the park if you plan to camp here!  There are two entrances to Pinnacles and they don't connect by road.  Also, we didn't have any cell phone service, but we did manage to get service with our hotspot while in the campground.  The store has wifi too, but we didn't need it.  The campground is plenty nice, but it doesn't have the feel of a typical National Park campground.  We stayed in one of the electric sites with our RV, but there are dry camping sites as well.  We had an awesome time in the park hiking and spotting California Condors.  The park is absolutely worth a visit and this is by far the closest place to stay.

Product Review:

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get to test products from time to time.  At this campground, I tested the Ecovessel Boulder Insulated Water Bottle.  The quality and performance of this product are both very impressive!  I tested this out both with hot tea and cold water and gatorade and have been very pleased.  I love the strainer feature so it keeps ice from rushing to my mouth every time I take a sip.  It's also convenient for tea as well.  Not to mention the color is great.  I love this water bottle!

This is a large campground (and the ONLY campground) in Pinnacles National Park. It is on the East side of the park, and you can only access it from the East side. There is no road going across the park from west to east, so expect to drive south or north in order to get to the campground if you are coming from the coast (as I was). Here’s what I like about the campground: it’s kind of spread out and it seemed that each site had a little privacy, every site has its own bear box, and some sites have trees for hammocks. Here’s what I didn’t like: the entire campground’s septic system was on the fritz and not expected to be fixed anytime soon, so all modern bathrooms were closed and porta potties were in place everywhere (and they needed tI be serviced). I also didn’t like that there was only one shower house with two showers (for women, I am am assuming 2 for men) for so many campers. I also didn’t like that the host sites were tucked back behind the pool and shower house on a spur road, making it difficult to spot (I finally found them late the second day; none too helpful either). All that said, the ranger station is right at the front of the campground, and there are great trails you can hike to or take a quick drive to from the campground. The CAVES!!!! So cool! And you have to hike the Balconies. Take at least two sources of light (cell phones do not count) and plenty of water as it gets hot in the afternoon. The coolest part was seeing 5 of the 30 or so California Condors soaring on the thermals over me on the Bear Gulch Loop.

I chose Casa De Fruta because of their Passport America discount. I had to be in the area for a day, so I’ve decided to try this one. It was half price for three nights. It is an older park, it has seen better days but the RV sites are full-hookup and concrete.

I saw lower sites that looked like tent sites, it is perfect if you want less highway noise. There are some“permanent resident” sites in the back of the park. Bathrooms are kept clean. They have a pool, but it is not heated, so I couldn’t use it in October. It was in the ’70s during the day and pretty cold during the night. 

I had to use my small heater to keep myself warm. It’s a great weekend place for families with cute fruit and candy stores, carousels for the kids, little train, and animals. The weekend I came there was a Rennesaince Faire in the back and I’ve heard there are other fun festivities going on in the area, like the Garlic Festival, Strawberry Festival etc. One funny thing happened, I locked my bike to the bench but I lost the key. The office was kind enough to have maintenance to come out and help me. They cut my lock and finally, I was able to get my bicycle back. Typical me!🙂 Overall, I had a good time at the park, not much to do after you visit the little stores, but it is perfect for a night or two stays.

This location is a fairly convenient distance to Pinnacles National Park if you prefer not to stay at the national park campground. A little more expensive since we are not Thousand Trail members but has a laundromat, small store, pool, showers – though some were out of order. It looked the place needed a tune up, not bad, just a little run down and things needed to be fixed. I would stay here again. Compared to the campground at Pinnacles where we were going, we feel this is the better option. Pinnacles is mostly day hikes so this campground is perfect.

The staff were friendly and helpful. We had quiet, wildlife (saw a bobcat and heard owls at night), and a pretty flat and roomy tent site. Our site was shady enough, though not all sites appeared so lucky. It seemed like there were lots of activities for the kids. We were only there one night and did not check out anything else the campground has to offer so can't comment.

It is a big campground, and I can't recall the site number we had. It was a little confusing as to what we could take or not. There seemed to be quite a few long term campers in the Rv area.

We just visited this campground with some friends. It is located in Central CA about 50 miles inland from the coast. The campgroud was nice. We found a lot of shady sites to choose from. There is a lot of wildlife here to see. Deer wandered through camp at all times of the day. You can see wild boar passing along the hillsides. We also saw a couple of foxes one evening on the perimeter. The have RV (mostly) and tent sites avaialable. Most tent sites have their own water and some also have electric hookups. There are a large selection of 50 and 30 amp sites for the rv crowd.

We stayed here for a few nights and it wasn’t a bad park, but not well kept either. It is a very large park and the space between spots wasn’t bad. Cell service here wasn’t good either. The pool was too cold to enjoy unfortunately.