Camp Three Campground
1Heads up1 fire 7.9 mi away
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $36From, per site
- Sites
- 5552 on recreation.gov
- Season
- May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Camp Three Campground is set amidst oak and locust trees at an elevation of 2,800 feet on the Upper Kern River, offering countless recreational opportunities for visitors. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, fishing, kayaking and rafting are popular activities in the Upper Kern River area.
Facilities
The campground consists of 52 paved sites and a group camp that accommodates up to 30 people for friends or family gatherings. Drinking water, vault toilets, and campfire rings are all provided. This facility is operated by Rocky Mountain Recreation Company, a division of ExplorUS and comments are welcome; comment forms are available from campground hosts or online.
Natural Features
The Sequoia National Forest, located at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada in central California, takes its name from the giant sequoia, the world's largest tree, which grows in more than 30 groves on the Forest's lower slopes. The Forest comprises about 1.1 million acres, and elevations range from about 1,000 to 12,000 feet, creating precipitous canyons and mountain streams with spectacular waterfalls, such as Salmon Creek Falls near Fairview and Grizzly Falls on the Kings River. Gray pines, scrub oaks, grass and dry climate shrubs cling to steep, canyon walls while cottonwoods and willows line the river's edge. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (760) 376-1269.
Nearby Attractions
The Cannell Meadow National Recreation Trailhead is just north of Kernville. Day trips include the Sequoia National Park, Trail of a Hundred Giants, and numerous sequoia groves in the Sequoia National Monument. The Giant Sequoia Mercantile offers a wide variety of books, maps, gifts, local art, camping supplies and other merchandise.
What the agency tells you
There are no electric hookups
Swimming in the river is dangerous due to strong currents and other hazards.
Click here for more info about the Sequoia National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Fire restrictions may be imposed at any time due to hot, dry weather conditions, at which time campfires and charcoal fires may not be allowed. For current fire conditions or weather closures contact the Kern River Ranger District (760) 376-3781.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect California's forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. For more information visit firewood.ca.gov.
Glass containers are prohibited in Kern Canyon and Isabella Lake Glass Container Prohibition Area
There is an extra vehicle fee of $8.00/night on the 2nd vehicle in each single campsite and on the 3rd & 4th vehicle in any double campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the 1st vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the 1st and 2nd are considered to be one vehicle and the 3rd and 4th are also considered to be one vehicle. So the fee would be a single $8.00/night of stay for the 3rd/4th motorcycle.
Dogs must be kept on a leash at all times. Owners must keep their dogs under control at all times or they may be asked to vacate the premise.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 55 · 1 walk-in, 3 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 3 of 55
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Portable Toilets
- PORTABLE TOILETS on 2 of 55 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER SPIGOT on 2 of 55 campsite records
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek, Meadow
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Night sky · 715th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 52 of the 55 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 14
What you actually pay
“There is an extra vehicle fee of $8.00/night on the 2nd vehicle in each single campsite and on the 3rd & 4th vehicle in any double campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the 1st vehicle by a hitch and tow…” · the U.S. Forest Service’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $36 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
55 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 52 mapped sitesAll 55 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 52 of the 55 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 001 | type not stated | 40 ft | ||||
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 002 | type not stated | 20 ft | ||||
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 108 ft | 228 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 76 ft | 264 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 005 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 95 ft | 300 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 41 ft | 367 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 007 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 41 ft | 391 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 008 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 56 ft | 384 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 434 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 45 ft | 465 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 011 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 512 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 012 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 49 ft | 518 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 013 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 49 ft | 470 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 014 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 85 ft | 476 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 015 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 561 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 016 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 45 ft | 562 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 78 ft | 438 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 78 ft | 509 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 131 ft | 384 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 020 | walk to | 10 ft | 45 ft | 258 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 021 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 219 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 83 ft | 310 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 71 ft | 227 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 72 ft | 303 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 76 ft | 230 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 026 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 297 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 027 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 57 ft | 209 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 028 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 57 ft | 210 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 029 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 57 ft | 223 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 76 ft | 222 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 031 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 81 ft | 295 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 032 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 81 ft | 234 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 033 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 109 ft | 223 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 034 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 69 ft | 205 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 035 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 69 ft | 211 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 036 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 109 ft | 155 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 037 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 92 ft | 125 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 038 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 34 ft | 109 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 039 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 34 ft | 88 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 040 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 112 ft | 92 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 041 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 86 ft | 115 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 042 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 78 ft | 106 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 043 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 78 ft | 94 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 044 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 90 ft | 106 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 045 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 140 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 046 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 163 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 047 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 89 ft | 87 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 048 | type not stated | 20 ft | ||||
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 049 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 50 ft | 211 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 050 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 195 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 051 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 86 ft | 195 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | 052 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 101 ft | 210 ft | $36 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | GROUP 1 | group standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 51 ft | 194 ft | $154 | |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | GROUP 2 | group standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 51 ft | 224 ft | $154 |
| AREA CAMP THREE CAMPGROUND | GROUP 3 | group standard nonelectric | 20 ft | yes | 52 ft | 274 ft | $154 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 55 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Thunderbird Group CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 0.5 mi
HeadquartersSequoia National Forest · 0.9 miChico Flat Dispersed CampingSequoia National Forest · 1.1 mi
Hospital FlatSequoia National Forest · 1.3 mi
Goldledge CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 4.5 miFrom Highway 99 in Bakersfield, California, take Highway 178 east to Lake Isabella. From Lake Isabella take Highway 155 around the west side of the lake to the town of Kernville. Turn north on Sierra Way/Mountain 99 and continue 5 miles to the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Kernville, CA
Typical weather
Typical May night 48°F, day 80°F.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Camp Three Campground is in California’s 20th congressional district. Its representative, Vince Fong (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →