Hospital Flat
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 9 mi
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $36From, per site
- Sites
- 36All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Hospital Flat Campground is situated along the Kern River, 6.5 miles north of the town of Kernville. Hiking, fishing, kayaking and rafting are popular activities. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, fishing, kayaking and rafting are popular activities in the Upper Kern River area. Click here to learn more about the area, including safety and permitting requirements and a listing of local outfitters.
Facilities
The campground offers several single-family sites on a single loop along the river. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water.
Natural Features
The campground sits within Sequoia National Forest at an elevation of 3,000 feet in an open area overlooking the Kern Wild and Scenic River. Gray pine, scrub oak, grasses and shrubs cling to steep, canyon walls along the river, and cottonwoods and willows line the riverbanks. Sequoia National Forest, located at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada in central California, is named for 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. Elevations range from about 1,000 to 12,000 feet, creating precipitous canyons and mountain streams with spectacular waterfalls such as Salmon Creek Falls and Grizzly Falls. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (760) 376-1269.
Nearby Attractions
The Cannell Meadow National Recreation Trail begins just north of Kernville. The trail stretches 11.5 miles as it climbs through mixed pine and fir forest to Cannell Meadow and a historic Forest Service cabin built between 1904 and 1909. Hikers are awarded beautiful views of the Kern River Valley along the trip. Visitors enjoy making day trips to Sequoia National Park and Giant Sequoia National Monument.
What the agency tells you
Pitching a tent may be difficult due to abundant rocks in the campsites. No more than 1 2-person tent per site is recommended.
In accordance with standard industry practices, ExplorUS will be assessing an additional vehicle fee of $8.00 per night on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any double family campsite, provided these vehicles are not joined to the first vehicle by a hitch and towed onto the site. In the case of motorcycles, the first two are considered to be one vehicle and the third and fourth are also considered to be one vehicle. No additional vehicle fees are collected for bicycles.
No hookups or showers available
Everything else this campground posts · 4
No ATV or ORV allowed in campground
Site length includes tow vehicle
Click here for more information on Sequoia National Forest
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
- 36 · 4 walk-in, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…are provided, as are vault toilets and drinking water. Natural Features The campground sits within…”
- 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
- Swimming
- Night sky · 668th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 13
What you actually pay
“In accordance with standard industry practices, ExplorUS will be assessing an additional vehicle fee of $8.00 per night on the second vehicle in each single family campsite, and on the third and fourth vehicle in any…” · 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
36 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 32 mapped sitesAll 36 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 32 of the 36 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 35 of the 36 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 001 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $36 | |||
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $36 | |||
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 003 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | $36 | |||
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 102 ft | 288 ft | 346 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 102 ft | 273 ft | 246 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 006 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 80 ft | 319 ft | 170 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 80 ft | 240 ft | 115 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 008 | walk to | 10 ft | 49 ft | 251 ft | 109 ft | $36–$152 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 009 | walk to | 10 ft | 49 ft | 207 ft | 114 ft | $36–$152 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 010 | walk to | 10 ft | 53 ft | 156 ft | 103 ft | $36–$152 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 011 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 86 ft | 108 ft | 86 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 90 ft | 78 ft | 141 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 89 ft | 80 ft | 208 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 014 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 89 ft | 167 ft | 200 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 016 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 92 ft | 171 ft | 424 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 017 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 92 ft | 81 ft | 409 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 018 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 63 ft | 177 ft | 545 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 019 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 74 ft | 100 ft | 593 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 020 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 63 ft | 182 ft | 607 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 021 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 110 ft | 665 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 022 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 73 ft | 110 ft | 737 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 023 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 94 ft | 197 ft | 759 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 024 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 98 ft | 116 ft | 831 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 025 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 80 ft | 116 ft | 949 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 026 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 88 ft | 202 ft | 956 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 027 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 64 ft | 125 ft | 1,026 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 028 | group walk to | 10 ft | 64 ft | 141 ft | 1,085 ft | |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 032 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 95 ft | 286 ft | 1,085 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 033 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 80 ft | 367 ft | 1,038 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 034 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 61 ft | 370 ft | 959 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 035 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 61 ft | 309 ft | 947 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 036 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 75 ft | 377 ft | 819 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 037 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 75 ft | 313 ft | 775 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 038 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 80 ft | 376 ft | 733 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 039 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 91 ft | 323 ft | 649 ft | $36 |
| AREA HOSPITAL FLAT | 040 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | $36 |
25 of 36 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Thunderbird Group CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 0.9 mi
Camp Three CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 1.3 miHalfway Group CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 1.8 mi
HeadquartersSequoia National Forest · 2.2 mi
Goldledge CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 3.2 miFrom Kernville, go 6.5 miles north on Sierra Way (Mountain 99) 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
Hospital Flat 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 →