Hobo Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 11 mi
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 14:11 UTC
- A night
- $28When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 25In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Hobo Campground is tucked on the banks of the Lower Kern River, north of the popular Miracle Hot Springs. It sits at 2290 feet elevation on the Sequoia National Forest in the Lower Kern Canyon. The close proximity to the Lower Kern River and the shade provided by the riparian forest make it an ideal summer escape from the heat. It has 23 individual tent only sites and an additional 10 sites across the campground. Keep reading
Recreation
White water boating is popular on the Lower Kern and requires a free Kern River Use permit from the Kernville Ranger Station. A trail also exists at the northern end of Hobo Campground that connects visitors to Sandy Flat Campground. The remains of an old resort can be found in the campground and Miracle Hot Springs area.
Facilities
Hobo Campground offers 21 single sites and 2 accessible single sites. All sites are by reservation only. The campground road is paved but not suitable for vehicles and attachments longer than 22 feet due to the narrow road. There is no potable water available for campers. The host site is located near the entrance at site 4. Each site has a table and a fire ring and most are within close proximity of the Kern River. Vault toilets are located in the middle and end of the campground. Additional portable toilets are also available throughout the campground.
Natural Features
The campsites are mostly all shaded by majestic sycamores, willows, cottonwoods, alders with views of the Lower Kern River close by.The trees show off a dramatic display of yellow, gold, and orange in the fall. The Kern River flows higher in the late spring and early summer months as water is released from Lake Isabella. The river can appear calm but can be deceiving with it's fast currents under the surface. The Forest Service does not encourage swimming in the river. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (760) 376-3781.
Nearby Attractions
Remington Hot Springs is a free Hot Spring on Forest Service Land located approximately one mile West of Hobo Camppground off Old Kern Canyon Road. White water rafting is a very popular activity on the Kern River, local Rafting Outfitters provide half-day to multi day trips along the Kern River.
What the agency tells you
Vehicles and their attachment cannot exceed 22 feet in length. Do not park on the vegetation. Trailers are restricted to utility and small teardrops due to legth restriction.
Fire restrictions may be in effect at the time of your visit.
A california campfire permit is required and be obtained at https://permit.preventwildfiresca.org/
Everything else this campground posts · 4
There is no glass allowed on the Sequoia National Forest.
Dogs must be kept on a leash.
Quiet hours are between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 25 · 20 tent-only, 3 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 17 ft
- Paved pads
- 23 of 25
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets · Portable Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 22 of 25 campsite records, ACCESSIBLE VAULT TOILETS on 2 of 25 campsite records / PORTABLE TOILETS on 21 of 25 campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…than 22 feet due to the narrow road. There is no potable water available for campers. The host site is located…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Hot springs, Lake, River
- Biking
- Birding
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Rafting
- Water access
- Whitewater rafting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 920th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Nothing to book until it reopensread 14:11 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 10
What you actually pay
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Hobo Campground closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Forest Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 4
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Sandy Flat CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 0.6 mi
- Pioneer PointSequoia National Forest · 5.7 mi · 80 sites
- Evans Flat CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 5.8 mi · walk-up
- Auxiliary Dam CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 6.0 mi
recreation.gov availability, read 14:11 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
25 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 23 mapped sitesAll 25 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. 20 of the 25 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| A | 1 | walk to | 15 ft | 76 ft | 113 ft | ||
| A | 10 | tent only nonelectric | 13 ft | yes | 48 ft | 275 ft | $28 |
| A | 11 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 60 ft | 334 ft | $28 | |
| A | 12 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 75 ft | 392 ft | $28 | |
| A | 13 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 87 ft | 441 ft | $28 | |
| A | 14 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 82 ft | 509 ft | $28 | |
| A | 15 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 82 ft | 586 ft | $28 | |
| A | 16 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 85 ft | 651 ft | $28 | |
| A | 17 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 85 ft | 690 ft | $28 | |
| A | 18 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 86 ft | 743 ft | $28 | |
| A | 19 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 74 ft | 803 ft | $28 | |
| A | 2 | walk to | 15 ft | 60 ft | 163 ft | ||
| A | 20 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 74 ft | 823 ft | $28 | |
| A | 21 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 71 ft | 851 ft | $28 | |
| A | 22 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 71 ft | 875 ft | $28 | |
| A | 23 | type not stated | 903 ft | ||||
| A | 24 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 69 ft | 929 ft | $28 | |
| A | 25 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 69 ft | 955 ft | $28 | |
| A | 3 | walk to | 15 ft | 60 ft | 125 ft | ||
| A | 4 | type not stated | 47 ft | ||||
| A | 5 | tent only nonelectric | 1 ft | yes | 69 ft | 32 ft | $28 |
| A | 6 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 43 ft | 101 ft | $28 | |
| A | 7 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 43 ft | 144 ft | $28 | |
| A | 8 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 30 ft | 198 ft | $28 | |
| A | 9 | tent only nonelectric | 17 ft | 30 ft | 227 ft | $28 |
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.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sandy FlatSequoia National Forest · 0.1 miSandy Flat CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 0.6 miMain Dam CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 5.4 mi
Pioneer PointSequoia National Forest · 5.7 miEvans Flat CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 5.8 miAuxiliary Dam CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 6.0 miFrom Bakersfield, California travel approximately 37 miles east on CA 178. Turn right onto Borel Road, and drive about 1/3 of a mile until you reach Kern Canyon Road. Take a right onto Kern Canyon Road and continue for 1.7 miles until you see the sign for Hobo Campground, keep right to stay on the driveway. The driveway that splits to the left is the parking lot for Miracle Hot Springs.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bodfish, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 27°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Hobo 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 →