I live here in Bakersfield for almost two years the fishing sucks even way up here in the kern…read moreriver I fished all the way up from the bridge all the way down from the river no fish I used flies and everything else and nothing. but the scenery is beautiful and dangerous at the same time really rocky if you want to catch fish try the kings river and upper kings there's lots of life in that river and wild life everywhere all year round up there take the 99 hwy to the 180 hwy it's a drive but worth it

LOVED IT ! Awesome spot right on the Kern River on your way to johnsondale and the trail of 100…read moreGiants

Super fun hike went after the rainy season and it was incredibly beautiful wildflowers everywhere…read morenot too many people on the trail a few dogs a few bikers lots of rushing water down in the valley very beautiful

Nice trail. Be wary of the psycho dude that owns the large log cabin style home near the parking…read morearea.

Oh how I completely love the Kern River!! I have been going for 24 years. It has never been as…read morebeautiful and full as it is now. One of my dearest friends is a seasoned river rafter. When we go river rafting, we mainly stay @ Headquarters or Sandy Flat Campground. This past weekend, we stayed at Sandy Flat. It was amazing. It is right off the river. The river was full and had power. I will add official stats by this weekend. My favorite group of runs is called The Jungle. (I will fact check this). I think that a great run was called Dilly. It is a class 4!! OMGoodness, it was wild & fun. Once more rafters arrived we went on another run. I will get the official names. One is named ... something Deli. Anyways, EPIC FUN. I forgot my wetsuit. I just went on June 3rd. The water was C O L D. Our guide, Doug, told us NOT to bring our phones. I wish I would have remembered my Go - Pro. We were lucky that the 178 reopened for the drive home. It was 93 degrees. I was mesmerized by the river. I couldn't stop watching it on the drive home.

The Kern River is beautiful…read more This review is based on a first timers camping visit. Coming up here from San Diego we didn't really know what to expect other than we might have an opportunity to tube down the river. So everyone in our group brought river tubes. That was our first miscalculation. Aperently tubing depends on the season, recent weather conditions, and various natural events that really narrow the scope of when you can tube safety. Also consider how you plan to get back up to your campsite after you tube down the river a few miles.. Ideally you rent tubes from a company that also shuttles you back up the river. If you don't want to rent tubs someone in your group has to pick you up and drive you back, which is a pain. There is no cell service and no uber... The Kern River is best suited for kayaking and rafting. There are many companies in kernville that offer those services. Camping. If you're looking to camp along the river during the summer you need to think about booking in January. During our stay mid-June, the entire river was booked solid.. We stayed at Sandy Flats campgroup which had a small beach area by the river. Litter bugs. One of the most discouraging things to see along the river was the amount of trash that people leave behind. The number one item? Used diapers.. If you can manage to visit midweek, and be prepared to use a kayak/rafting company you will have an epic time. Note - Sequoia National Park is about an hours drive away. Makes for a great day trip.

This trailhead looks like a dirt turnout from Caliente Bodfish Rd (County Rd 483). The trailhead…read moreis located at lat/long coordinates 35.569589,-118.506856. If you copy and paste those coordinates into Google Maps, it will give you the exact location. To start the hike, you have to go past a barbed wire fence gate and head north up a steep incline to the ridge. Once on the ridge, walk back south to the summit (located at 35.567219, -118.512666). It is a short hike (~2 miles) with an elevation gain of 670 feet. This is a great little hike that is suitable for beginners and children or anyone looking to get out for a quick morning hike.

This is a great hike if you're looking to get in shape or if you're trying to get a view of the…read morelake.

May, 2024. We stayed one night at this campground mid-week in our Class B RV after having made…read morereservations on Recreation.gov. Finding the campground (Rating: 1/5). We had had a LONG driving day, it was getting dark, and we were not familiar with the Lake Isabella area. We passed several National Sequoia Forest campgrounds on the lake that had vacancies but Tillie Creek was still further along -- and required navigating a curvy road where the speed limit and driving by locals was too fast for conditions. When our GPS reported that we had reached, we didn't see any signage that a campground was there so we mistakenly missed it. However, we then noticed picnic tables and fire rings that were suggestive of the campground so we turned back and found the campground. Finding a site. (Rating: 4/5). Being mid-week, almost ALL of the sites were available but most had tags that they were reserved for the weekend. We selected a fairly level site -- and were soon joined by the camp host who checked us in and gave us our car tag. He also warned us to be careful because there were rattlesnakes in the area. We only saw a bunny! It turned out that only the camp host, another rv, and us were the only ones on-site for the night. It also turned out that our selected site (#18) wasn't ideal because there was early morning traffic noise. This campground does not offer showers, but it does have restrooms and water spigots. Also note that one section of the campground isn't being maintained -- beyond where Tillie Creek had flooded. Also, to our knowledge, the lake is not easily accessible from the campground.

Stayed at this campground over the weekend. The campground is very pleasant, quiet, and has many…read moredifferent sites available. We chose a site in a grove of trees and it's been amazing have shade throughout the entire day. The campground isn't perfect, we were lost when we first came in, went up the road to some mobile homes and then finally when we reached the campground it looked slightly abandoned. The booth where you check in was abandoned, in disrepair and full of cobwebs, a playground was full of empty frames of where swings and stuff should be, and like I mentioned before looked empty. We eventually found the camp host who was very pleasant and helpful though and were given the choice to pick any site we wanted. About an hour from Sequoia's trail of 100 giants and a few minutes from the French Gulge Marina where we rented some kayaks. Only real downside was there were a lot of wasps at our campsite when we tried to prepare food and no showers on site either. Toilets are basically outhouses but were kept clean. All in all had a good weekend away here.

This was an incredible day for our family! Our son was there with his scout den earning his water…read morerafting merit badge and we got to do a full day lower Kern River, it was amazing! This company is so professional, nice, organized extremely well, and we will be coming back! And with our packages, it came with lunch provided, so tasty! Our son had Julianna as a guide and he really liked her. He said it was so cool and fun! She put him at ease since this was his first time doing this. We had Kyle and Mitch for our groups, they also put us at ease since we were doing this for the first time too. It was absolutely beautiful! Kyle was so good. Calm, explained everything, and fun. We cannot thank you enough for this amazing experience. We cannot wait to come back!

Jester today was a wonderful guide. He was super friendly and knew the river well. As always, the…read moreentire group is so professional and Dale the bus driver offered some cool stories and music for the ride. Kyle helped the other raft but went over all of the information we needed. He was also super nice. We only raft with this outfit when in Kernville. It is always a great time with wonderful people. Highly recommend!!!

This review is for Isabella Peak which was a ~2.3 miles round trip that took ~1 hour, 30 minutes to…read morecomplete. Trailhead was located inside and to the left of Hungry Gulch Campground. Trail was mostly a narrow dirt path with several steep inclines. Instead of following the AllTrails route through Coso Mine; we went with a more direct and slightly shorter route towards Isabella Peak. Stunning views of Lake Isabella at higher elevations! Parking was at a small dirt lot to the right of Hungry Gulch Campground sign. Short video of the hike for those interested! https://youtu.be/0VOvmYcGY5U

Most horrible experience ever. We could not sleep a single minute till the morning because of…read moreextremely loud group of people singing and screaming, and ranger did absolutely nothing. When we asked them nicely to be more quiet after 2am, they said we are waisting out time and will only listen to the rangers. It is 6 am and nothing changed. Unfortunately ranger working here is not interested at all about the rules and does absolutely nothing when even being asked multiple times.

We had a BLAST rafting with Kern River Outfitters. We were a party of 12 with kids ranging in age…read morefrom 10-15 plus adults and the whole experience was perfect for all ages! The guides were exceptional - we were led by Jackson and our guides on the rafts were Scott and Anneke. They gave us all of the important safety information (in a fun, engaging way) and once we were on the rafts they gave us clear direction (forward 1! Back 1!), talked about the rapids and local points of interest while making the trip super fun for everyone. The first time down the rapids helped our group get comfortable with what to expect. And on the second trip down the fun really increased! They let the kids "ride the bull" and get silly (all while feeling super safe!). We're planning to come back for a 2- day trip once all of our kids are old enough. Highly recommend!!!

If you're looking for a great time, this is the place! Get going while the river water is flowing!…read more This place has great guides and they put your safety first. I went for a full day of rafting and it was great. We rode the upper Kern. The cold water felt great on such a hot day. John was our guide. He was great. You'll have a great time with any of the guides! They're all really fun. It would have been great to be able to jump off your raft and swap to another raft just for fun. The lunch provided was not bad. Sandwiches, cookies, fruit, and lemonade. Definitely would come back to raft with them again!

Wow! What an amazing find. This place totally exceeded my expectations. From the moment we walked…read morein, the staff was super friendly and attentive.

So this trip was definitely a spontaneous one - we planned it on Monday to go Saturday (today) and…read moreI am saying "spontaneous" because its the summer time and usually these kind of activities are full. Well that was the case for many of these tours. However, I stumbled across Kern River Tours and decided to give them a call. Luckily, they had open spots for us and even gave us a discount for being a first timer! We all saved almost $10!!! The lady over the phone for reservations was super friendly and nice. Since it was our first time, I had a lot, I mean A LOT of questions and she was just so helpful and patient throughout the whole reservation process. It was a quick over the phone reservation and the confirmation email came right away after I booked it. The email is very detailed with the trip and my order but also a list of items I should bring to the trip. It was very informative! Now to the activity. We came and we were instantly greeted by the friendly staff and even if we were a group of 7, after determining that it was safe for all of us on one raft, they let us all be in one which was awesome! Our leader Matt was very experienced and provided us the most smooth yet exciting experience during our II & III Express trip. We had a few fun splashes and Matt did a phenomenal job leading the group. They also had soft drinks ready for us at the bus and also watermelons at the shop upon our return! Awesome customer service! We definitely remembered to tip our team leader. And the best part was that I did not feel pressured to do so which a-lot of these activity places do - pressure you to tip but Kern River Tour did not. That was also awesome. I also bought the pictures during the trip which is pretty cool since you can't really take a selfie when you're on the raft paddling away! They were $50 plus tax - a little over $53 total for 25 images. It may seem overpriced but also who can stand and take all these action photos for you while you paddle away. Overall, the experience was great and I definitely recommend others to try!