Best RV Parks & Resorts near Los Banos, CA

We have stayed at this campground many times and recently revisited in September’24. This COE is on a small lake that is used for irrigation during the summer resulting in a much lower water level than in the spring. Fishing is good. The Corps have added more electric sites over the years and there were 5-6 that fit our 43’ Blue Bird. We marked this as “big rig” friendly. Springtime has the grasses green with abundant wild flowers in late Feb through early March. Summer can be hot as the elevation is low in the California Central Valley and the grasses are brown. Sites are asphalt. Many sites may take some time to level. Back in and pull through are available. A nice dump stations is available within the COE park. Fall has a Tarantula migration and you will definitely see them. Coyote, Bobcat, and deer are frequently seen. Codorniz is 21 miles from Chowchilla. One way in and one way out cuts down on traffic.

We happened upon this RV Park as a drop in when our other park was not available. What a pleasant surprise! We’ll be making this our go to spot when traveling through the Gilroy area from now on.

For starters, the staff is wonderful. So friendly. Just an FYI, if they have open spots after the office closes they put out packets for up to 2 pull thru and 2 back in spots for late arrivals without a reservation.

Pros

• Great central location!
• Roomy spaces, by RV park standards.
• Water, sewer, electric, WiFi, and trash.
• Propane on-site for purchase.
• Laundry mat on site. Prices more reasonable than going to a laundry mat off site.
• Showers and restrooms.
• Truly dog welcoming, with multiple dog poop baggy bins and a dog run so your best friend can run leash free. They even gave my dog premium dog treats upon arrival. Wow!!
• A really nice pool.
• Wide back in spots, with wide roadways. Even a novice RVer can back it up with out concern.
• This place can accommodate truly large rigs, there were quite a few of them during our visit.
• There are likely long term rentals, but I couldn’t point them out because all the sites were neat and clean with flowers and landscaping. The park was super quiet.
• Open, lush grassy area.

Cons:

• It’s an RV park, so there is a lot of smooth new concrete and the sites are close together. If you want natural turf and more space, you’ll need to give up the amenities and go to a State Park or Forest.

Plenty of sites if you have 30 amp. Plenty of full hook up sites. The 50 amp sites were all in one section. If you don’t need to run your A/C you can get by with 30 amp hook up. We loved most of the sites were pull thru. Had good picnic tables. Restrooms and showers were great. Like others have said this place needs a lot of care. A lot of sites were out of order. Nice trails there. Gilmore was a distance for us to restock on supplies. Pool was open but not heated. Hot tub was closed for the winter season. You are out in the sticks so no cell phone service. You could purchase WiFi and patch your phone thru WiFi calling.

I stayed here for one night in a 22’ RV at one of the back-in sites for the shorter term stays on a drive from Death Valley back towards the San Francisco Bay area. I believe the office is currently closed due to Covid, but they have a box of maps and envelopes plus a drop box for payment right outside the office.

It looks like most of the spots here are for pretty long term stays. There was plenty for space for short term, overnight campers. Spot comes with WiFi code, but there’s plenty of cell service too. You’re close to the I5 and can hear the soft lull of some traffic, but it’s still fairly quiet.

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!

Nice older campground you'll need a tent or smaller rig. If RV... bring leveling blocks... lots. This use to be First Come First Served but apparently it's reservable now. Getting it reserved is a website-mess though as you need to click on San Luis Reservoir SRA and then Los Banos Creek Campground. LBC doesn't even show up on the map.

https://www.reservecalifornia.com/

Sites:

1 - Good Off-season (No trees just a shade structure) - On Lake

2 - Ok - Very unlevel. Has shade structure view of lake over site 1

3 - Good Shady site, fairly level and large enough for 20' trailer / 24' RV - On Lake

4 - Good Shady site, fairly level and large enough for 20' trailer/ 24' RV - On Lake

5-9 - Ok Small, with shade structures. No obvious spot for tents but near Lake

10 - Ok Medium size and good for trailer with lots of leveling blocks... one tree for shade

11 - Meh? Small weird triangle parking spot with no obvious tent pad - On Lake and shaded

12 - Good Medium size, Lots of shade, On Lake

13-14 - Pull-throughs ? No Shade

Porta-potties were in great shape (March) to the point I'd rather have these than Pit toilets. Good Job to whoever services those!

Loved everything about this campground! Registration online was really easy as was the check-in process. We stayed in Valley View 1, site 106. There was really no road noise at our site, though a few sites further around the loop did have noise. This particular site has a trail leading directly to the vast network of hiking trails. Huge bonus for us and we were pleasantly surprised that not one person used our site as a cut through. On the subject of hiking, this is a county park that allows dogs on ALL the trails. It’s hard to find that sometimes so we greatly appreciated how dog friendly it was. We didn’t actually encounter anyone else as we hiked, so I can’t attest to whether folks follow the rule that dogs must be on a 6 ft lead on the trails, but they certainly did in the campground. There are quite a few trails that are currently closed due to storm damage, but crews were actively working on them.

While the sites are a little close to each other, those on the outside of the loop had a great deal of privacy. Inner loop sites have none, but would be great if you were camping with friends. We didn’t use the restrooms or showers, but peeked in them anyway. Like everything else in this campground, they were clean and well maintained.

The RV sites have both water and electric hookups which was great! There is a very convenient FREE dump station just inside the entrance to the park that we used as we departed.

Our friends stayed in one of the yurts and it was great, albeit a little cold for them at night. I believe there are 2 dog friendly yurts. 106RV

What a gem of a campground! We’ll definitely come back!

Important to note that you can actually get a cell signal if you walk to the dump station!