Best Cabin Camping near Sequoia National Forest

Most reviews here are dated. Campground has been abandoned for years so: no fees, busted up roads, no water, no trash, no bathrooms, no cell/wifi. Basically dispersed camping in an awesome location on concrete spurs/pads.  Each site still had picnic table and fire pit.  The mosquitos here are biblical at night so bring your nets and deet.  Kern creek and trails right from campground. General store and Grumpy Bear tavern close down the road.  Only 2 other campers here when I stayed in October. Great place as long as you are expecting disbursed camping experience.

Stayed 4 nights the first two dry camping in spot 14 in the Oak Grove, nice and spacious with a little deck picnic table and fire pit. The last two nights in spot 26 (pictured) which was spacious on the small river (probably larger later in spring) and full hook up. Pretty mountain views from both sites. Turkeys and lots of birds roaming. We did see a bear too (in Sequoia not at the campground).

A lot of the other sites looked a little tight but not bad. Bath houses were okay not great. Showers use quarters. The place was completely full for our entire stay (Easter week).

The greatest part was the proximity to Sequoia/Kings Canyon (8 miles to the entrance). Would definitely stay again should we visit the parks in the future.

We stayed at one of the group campsites with about 15 people total. Plenty of space and picnic tables my only complaint was that there was only one normal sized bear locker for a group campsite. Hard to fit coolers and food for 15 people into one bear locker.This might be normal for group campsites but this was our first time using one so we were caught off guard. Parking is also an issue as they have 4 giant group campsites with maybe one small parking lot with 15 spaces to share between them. Most of your group will have to park on the side of the road outside the entrance to the campground. Besides those two things the campground is great. There is a general store about a mile down the road if you need ice or snacks and they have WiFi if you absolutely need to get ahold of someone.

Lodgepole is a very popular camp ground in the Sequoias. There is a river that runs through the camp ground that is easily accessed and made for a lot of fun during our visit. The lodge offers many accommodations including food, laundry, visitors center, and shuttle access. The camp sites we stayed in were only for tents and included fire pit with grate (needed to be dug out a bit) and picnic table. Bear box on each site and additional shared boxes in walking distance for additional storage. Water and bathrooms within short walking distance. This is a busy campground and I find that it's hard not to get to know your neighbor. We were very fortunate to have other kids our daughters age by us however I can see how this could be inconvenient for some. Rangers patrol sites often and lots of wildlife in area. We enjoyed our stay and felt that it offered great access to both parks and enjoyed the trails that led directly from the campgrounds.

This campground is a great area for yourself to be immersed into the forest. We arrived on a Sunday and there were first come first serve campgrounds available. We stayed one night but there were plenty of spots to choose from. The roads around the campground are drivable for all type of cars. Due keep in mind you will need a to obtain campfire permit online before you arrive depending if there are fire restrictions or not. There is no service within the campground so make sure you have everything available to you. There are 2 hikes nearby but unfortunately one of the hikes, Freeman Creek Trail, was closed due to restoration work being done at the time. Definitely would recommend if you plan a little trip into Sequoia National Forest.

Stayed in Site 78 in the upper part of Lodgepole, which was perfect. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, no one was in the site next to us. (That one, site 74, seemed really cramped. Someone had moved the picnic table to the tent pad, but there wasn't really much space to move it anywhere else. If someone had been in that site, we'd have had neighbors pretty close to us.) On the other side of this site is a hillside, so the neighbors on that side are further up. The river helps to drown out the other campground noise, but we lucked out with all good neighbors, even on the weekend.

Site 78 is NOT listed as a "walk in" site, but you do have to walk your stuff down a little hill to get to the site, which has a lovely, flat tent pad. (Only issue was on one part of the pad, Lodgepole chipmunks had made holes. We were able to put our 4-person tent so it wasn't over those holes. I'd be concerned about the chipmunks chewing through the tent if you put it over their two holes.)

Nice fire pit, with views of the river and of the bridge through the campground. We could watch people coming and going on the Tokopah Falls Trail across the river. Our picnic table was SLIGHTLY slanted, but not a big deal. Our site was just across from the bathrooms. (Bring a light for that. Bathrooms have no lights here, but there are flushing toilets and sinks.) It's uphill to the bathrooms, but not too bad. The water spigot was right by our site, too. And we were within easy walking distance of both the Tokopah Falls trailhead and the shuttle bus stop at the campground to other parts of the park. (In June of 2021, the shuttles were running regularly along routes 1 and 4, with 2 and 3 not running because of the pandemic.)

The showers were listed as "closed for the season," which also appeared to be pandemic related. This was a bit disappointing because we were hoping to shower at some point during our 4-night stay. So beware of that, if you really want a shower. The Lodgepole visitor's center was also closed because of the pandemic, but the market was open, where you could buy souvenirs, typical items in a camp market (wood, marshmallows, drinks, ice cream, etc…)

Rangers were friendly. (Look for Ranger Alex and say hello!) Put your food and scented items in bear boxes. We were told that a bear had been in the campground in the previous week. We also saw one up the Tokopah Falls trail, in the meadow upstream from the campground. There is a kitchen sink at the bathrooms. The trash and recycle bins were across from the bathrooms. There were also extra bear boxes here and there, in case your stuff doesn't fit in one box.

You're welcome to scavenge for kindling and small pieces of wood here or else just buy wood from the market. (It was about $11 per box.)

Overall, we enjoyed our stay. We loved some of the other sites along the river, as well, also in Upper Lodgepole. Lower Lodgepole was more open, with what looked to be more party types and larger groups, plus more RV's. Across the bridge was another area, which seemed to be a mix of RV's and tents, but my group agreed we'd stick with Upper Lodgepole as tenters.

Also, as noted on various websites, there's no cell phone service here. If you need to pop in to check a quick work email, there's slow wifi at the lodge about a 10 minute drive up the road. You can grab a wifi signal in the lobby there or grab a bite at their grill, but it's not fast wifi. Good enough for quick email answers though.

This campground/RV park saved us when all of Sequoia was either full or closed due to COVID. The host was nice and helpful. It’s accurately described in other reviews — basically providing a dirt parking lot and toilet/shower facilities. No privacy, but still much more than most RV shared landing pads. We were in the tent section at the site closest to the water. There were trees on one side. We LOVED the little dammed up swimming hole in the river. We did not love that several huge trailers were parked in the other site flanking the water entrance. They didn’t belong in the tent area and they ran generators through most of the day. Seemed like long-term or permanent residents. Oh well, we came for Sequoia National Park. It was a real bummer to lose so much time just driving in and out of the park (as opposed to camping in the center of it), but we were grateful to find this one and only available option in July with no reservation.