Best Tent Camping near Los Banos, CA

Enjoyed tent camping at mount Madonna. I was able to reserve a drive in tent campground one month out . Many miles of trails and excellent facilities.

Good tent camping. The Merced river runs along the east side of thr Park. I think there are beaches but can't confirm it (see pics).21 tent sites ,showers, bathrooms, lost of tables and water for the sights to share. The camp does need to catch up with maintenance in he facility though,lighting and cleaning. No camp host while we were there, that could be why?

Great for tent camping and hiking. RV sites have 30 amp hookups. No water or sewer hookups. Dump station was available. RV sites are all gravel and fairly flat. Paying after the store closed at 6pm was an ordeal. Could never make it happen. We tried to log in for 3$ to pay online but it failed and we were never able to connect. Tent sites were secluded, many under shade trees, and well dispersed. Bathrooms were few and far between. Mostly vault toilets. There is a pool that families will enjoy. There is a small store. Walks and hikes are what is available. For a National Park it underwhelmed.

We starter visiting Modesto Resivor in the sixties. My father would hail all of our gear out to one of the many islands, and let the kids and dogs run free. Now that we are older, we camp on the shore line. Rustic tent camping near the water-skiing course is my favorite. Quite nights and darker stargazing. Blonde Beach is where your likely to find us Jetskiing.

Great park with trails that vary from flat oak meadows with wildflowers to strenuous mountain hikes to canyon creeks & caves. Parking inside the park fills up early (by 8am) so get there early or you’ll have to start your hike from the big lot at the visitor center and add a few miles.

The campground is good. We tent camped. Bathrooms are kept clean & stocked with TP & soap. Water taps are frequent. Some sites are small & exposed; others are big, shady & private. Many on loop C are good. The camp store is very well stocked.

We went during the week and we were the only ones there. The Rangers are super nice and the showers were clean. They do have a ton of open space but lack shade and their website needs some updates since they don't represent the campsites very good. the lake was nice and warm and very refreshing. They don't have a whole lot of activities to do here so bring a football or some board games to play. They only drawback that we had was that the water hookup was too low to the ground to wash dishes (we do tent camping). They also allow you to have a fire pit fire and supply you with a fire ring and bbq pit. Overall we were very happy here.

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!

We stumbled upon this campground here on the Dryt. We were able to book 2 nights stay very late and got in for electric hook ups with our class B van. The spot was 86 D loop and it had a nice oak tree for shade. It was next to the road but the road wasn’t busy so it wasn’t disturbing us. They had good showers with good pressure for 50 cents 3 minutes or 75 cents for 4 1/2 minutes. Flushing toilets a pool and nice camp store. We rode our bikes around the grounds and they have awesome tent camping in very shaded and secluded areas of the campground. Site 70-60’s looked nice. We drove to the National Park entrance and hiked Bear Gulch one day. Amazing and moderate hike to beautiful rock formations caves and the reservoir. Next day hiked to the balconies and caves from Old Pinnicle road. More cool caves and beautiful 4 hour hike there and back. We took showers used the dump station for our grey water tank and emptied our Porta potty in the bathroom. This campground was great!!

This is the first campground we stayed in when we bought our new Cricket trailer. It gets COLD at night! We weren't expecting it. Be prepared!

There are a lot of sites at the campground but there really isn't much privacy (like the Yosemite campgrounds, this is not a place you go when you want seclusion). The sites are on gravel so they're nice and level (I don't know about the tent sites, though). I think this is a great place if you want to camp with friends (since you can book a bunch of sites all in a row and there won't be any division between you), or if you're really just using it as a good spot for a home base so you can go climbing.It's dog-friendly but ONLY inside the campground itself.

There are a lot of amenities, including a store (the sell food, plus all the nicknacks like natl park stickers) and a pool (which I didn't use). I think I'd like to go back now that we are more experienced campers and know to bring blankets. :)

If planning a trip longer than just a day hike to the beautiful Pinnacles National Park, and since backpacking in not allowed in Pinnacles, the Pinnacles campground on the east entrance is a nice quiet place to spend a night. This campground is also a nice option to get an early start to a long hike the following morning. The campground is situated only accessible from the east side (this is important if you are coming in off the 101 on the west side of the park - you will need to make sure you plan your route properly or will end up on the wrong side of the park with the closest option Bittersweet Rd. (G13) to cut across and get to the east entrance. The campground itself was very clean, and while we used a small tent site, also offers RV sites. Sites are primarily close together but also had many trees which offered a little shade and semi-privacy feeling. Standard campground with picnic tables and metal fire pits, water located in multiple areas throughout including showers. There was also a pool located on the grounds but we did not use it.

Two campgrounds: tent sites with no hookups and an RV Loop with electric. We chose the latter since we are having problems with our solar. Several sites are not open due to damage (storms, vandalism, not sure why) and the ones that are open could still use a little sprucing up. We were in site 112 which had the advantage of shade from a huge oak tree. Since the three sites to our left were closed and the one to our right was not occupied, it felt private but if all sites were open and occupied, there would not be much privacy between sites. 116 looked to be the best site in this Loop. Wooden picnic table was a little warped and there was a huge hole at one corner that I tripped in more than once. We tried to re-position the table but there was no way it would budge. No bathrooms in the RV Loop but it was not that far of a walk to the flush toilets in the tent Loop. The road on the RV Loop was part paved and in fine condition but part dirt with deep ruts that were impossible to navigate around. This campground gets extra points for recycling, especially of propane canisters. The campground is located at the East entrance to the park by the Visitor center; there are no campgrounds by the west entrance and you cannot drive between the two (you can hike). Lots of hiking, Condor sightings and, in the spring, many wildflowers.

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.

I snagged a last-minute cancelation in Pinnacles during peak time in May. We were in site 82 of Loop D, which is the RV area. The campground recently renumbered its sites, so that can be confusing if you're researching sites.

Very open and flat. We pitched out tent where you'd normally park and just put the car slightly to the side. Plenty of room. You can buy wood from the camp host, who then delivers it to your site.

We brought a pop up, which was useful over our table during the day, when it got into the 80s. You can watch condors and turkey vultures circle over the hillside nearby. (Learn to tell the difference! Both have red heads, but condors are much larger, have a different white striping underneath and don't flap their wings. If it's big and smooth flying, it's probably a condor.)

Our biggest issue was our neighbor in their shiny silver trailer, who ran their heater/ac all night, which cycled loudly on and off next to our tent. Had it not been for that, it would have been a more pleasant stay. On the plus side, we used a converter to plug into the power box at our site and were able to set up a little cell phone charging station. (The regular power outlet like the kind you see in your house seemed to be blocked, as I've seen it at other campgrounds, as well.)

Not much shade though. We had one tree by our site. Bathrooms were a bit of a walk, but were fine. Water spigot was literally AT our site, next to our fire pit. So we got to say hello to lots of folks. We grabbed an ice cream from the market by the tiny visitor's center at the entrance to the campground. We didn't use the swimming pool or showers.

Tent sites near the water across the way seemed more private, but also more prone to mosquitoes. It was nice listening to the frogs in that area, but that could annoy some people.

Main hiking trail parking lot filled by 8am or 8:30am on weekends during peak times, so we got up there early. They close the road out in front of the campground when those lots fill. So if you see that, you can wait until a car comes down or you can tack on some extra mileage and hike up from the back side of the campground.

This place is so great! It is difficult to find BLM camping in California and this is a gem!

The road is in prone to mudslides and looked like is was recently cleared of mud in multiple spots. Warning though this is the kind of mud that is like clay and has to be scraped off of wheel wells and undercarriage. We collected quite a bit and the underneath of our RV looks like hundreds of stalactites grew and THAT was on the recently cleared spots! The road itself is paved but very potholed, patched and narrow. Be aware of blind corners on weekends when the traffic increases and people fly up the narrow road!

The campground has big flat parking areas for RVs, vans or tents. The individual spots are spaced out nicely and all seemed to have some shade. Also there are covered picnic tables, fire pits and a bathroom which consists of a clean pit toilet. There is NO water, hook ups, or garbage available so don't forget to bring extra water to extinguish your fire as this is a high risk fire zone. Pack in and pack out!

The days and nights are quiet and very relaxing! Bird and wildlife viewing abundant and hiking trails nearby. 

There is absolutely NO cell reception at the campground or the road in, NO AT&T, NO Verizon, and NO T-Mobile!

Will definitely come here again!

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.

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.

It was a nice campground to go to. Lots of wildlife and hiking. Dogs are allowed. The lake is closed to any and all water-craft because the water level is too low. It is very clean and well maintained for the most part. Cell phone service for Xfinity/Verizon is spotty at best. There is weak wifi.

However, here's where it loses a star:

I arrived on a Friday late afternoon. Set up my tent. People were fairly loud until about 11pm. Bathrooms were really nice and clean…at first. Saturday, in came the crowd. Loud, obnoxious, and inconsiderate way past midnight. There was no reinforcement of quiet hours past 10pm. The toilets were clogged by 9pm at both restrooms. Men's restrooms have ONLY ONE STALL. And they were clogged beyond belief. I cannot understand why people do not know how to flush a toilet in public. Do they do this crap at home? Anyway, Sunday morning past 9am, still clogged up. Lines waiting to use the compromised restrooms as well. Ridiculous. Unfortunately, that's what ruined my experience. People just being completely selfish in a public campground and staff not be able to keep up with their antics. Maybe there shouldn't be so many sites for so few facilities. Just a thought.

For SUV tents, check out campsite pics on other sites before booking. SUV tents are usually limited to one entrance/exit point on the tent. Usually the driver's side. Each campsite is different. The one I reserved had only one pic that basically showed me nothing. I only could back in to set up my tent on the grass. Both the picnic table and firepit were facing the passenger side way far from the parking spot (as you can see in the second pic) opposite the entrance to my tent. So something to consider.

I was able to enjoy the view of lake and mountains inside the tent. Wild pigs appeared at night. It was our first camping trip and we had a great time! No internet and no electricity. Restroom was clean.

Amazing site, got a spot right by river with easy access, plenty of room for 4 tents and the campground hosts went out of their way to help of it was needed

The camp store was a life saver. We left our tent poles at home but were able to buy some at the camp store. The staff were all friendly and helpful. The pool guy was funny too.

We came last summer and stayed in sites #5–7. We arrived about 9pm, unaware that the gates close at sundown. They close and there is NOBODY there to open them for you, so we had to check in the following morning. They do provide a code for you should you need to exit, or if you do arrive late like we did. Just be sure to call ahead of time and check in for the code. This information is posted on the website, but we missed it, so this was on us.

It’s a small campground, only 14 sites I believe. The entire campground is right on the banks of the reservoir so water access no matter where you’re staying. Sites #5-9 are the flattest and beach front. I’m not sure what it’s like now after this year’s rain, but there was a sandy beach front leading into shallow water. It was perfect for our young kids to play in safely (with life vests of course) and we could still be at the campsite and keep eyes on them.

There appears to be only one water spicket and it’s right at the corner of site #5, so it can be a little awkward depending on where your tent is at. There are also several porta potties across the road from site #5 but they didn’t smell. They appeared to be well maintained.

Site #5 appears to be the largest site. We fit our 3 tents at the one site and used the other two just for parking. We originally had site #2 booked as well, but it is a very small spot. Big enough for one 6 person tent. So we all crammed into site 5 but with no problem. We really enjoyed the privacy and smallness of this campground. The camp hosts were very friendly and not bothersome. We plan to return again this year!

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!

We arrived late in the evening, tent spots were tucked into a wooded area. Rv spots were more out in the open with power hook ups. Campground had multiple bathrooms, as clean as to be expected, showers, and a swimming pool open during the day. Very neat camp ground, definitely plan on returning.