2Heads up2 fires, nearest 4 mi
Wildfire
Cyrus fire · 3.5 mi away · 543 acres · 95% contained · updated Oct 16, 2026
Wildfire
Carrier fire · 35 mi away · updated Oct 17, 2026
Not on the booking systemrecreation.gov lists none of the 81 campsites the agency files here, in any month asked. Whatever these sites are, a reservation isn’t how you get one.

Reservable everywhere but bookable nowhere.Ask the agency →

Right now
Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
Sites
81None on recreation.gov
Season
May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
30 ftLongest rig
2,650 ftElevation
1,210 ftWater · an unnamed pond
In townLake Isabella, CA
0%Tree cover
Open May 1 through September 30Today

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices

In the agency’s own words

Hungry Gulch Campground sits 3 miles from Lake Isabella in the Sequoia National Forest of California. Visitors enjoy swimming, waterskiing, windsurfing and fishing on the scenic lake. Keep reading

Recreation

Visitors enjoy fishing, swimming, water skiiing and windsurfing at Lake Isabella, which covers 11,000+ acres on the Kern River and has over 38 miles of shoreline. Anglers will find black and white crappie, bluegill, blue and channel catfish, largemouth bass and rainbow trout. Trout fishing is also available in area streams. Please click here for safety and permit information. Many hiking opportunities can be found around Lake Isabella and along the Kern River.

Facilities

The campground offers nearly 80 non-specific sites. Picnic tables and campfire rings and drinking water.

Natural Features

The campground is situated on a pine-covered hillside, 3 miles from Lake Isabella's western shores at an elevation of 2,640 feet. Many sites have views of Lake Isabella off in the distance. 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 Kern River is a short drive from the campground and offers hiking and fishing opportunities.

What the agency tells you

Rule

This campground is open as needed on very busy holiday weekend as an overflow site. If the gate is locked please call the Kern River managers office at 760-376-1269

Rule

Porta Potties available

Rule

No hookups available

Everything else this campground posts · 4
Rule

No off-road vehicle use allowed in the campground

Rule

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.

Rule

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.

Rule

The Camp Host is located at Boulder Gulch Campground across the street.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Tents and rigs

Sites
81
Hookups
None
Longest rig
30 ft
Paved pads
3 of 81
Accessible sites
None listed
Pets
Allowed
Campfires
Allowed, barring fire bans
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Drinking water
Yes
“…Picnic tables and campfire rings and drinking water. Natural Features The campground is situated on a…”
Stay limit
14 nights
recreation.gov facility rule maxStay

Around the campground

On the water
Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek, Beach
Night sky · 890th darkest of 1,201 in CA
Bortle 4
Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

Nothing on the booking system

recreation.gov lists none of the 81 campsites the agency files here. Whatever these sites are, a reservation isn’t how you get one.

No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.

Booking windowOut of seasonOut of season, no booking. The last reservable season the agency published ended September 1, 2025, and it hasn't published the next one.recreation.gov
Max stay14 nightsthe facility record
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itRocky Mountain Recreation CompanyA private concessionaire under permit from U.S. Forest Service (parent: ExplorUS)the operator link
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Every line of the receipt · 10

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
The U.S. Forest Service publishes no per-night rate for this campground that we can read, so there’s no sign price to print. That’s a gap in the record, not a free campground.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What this campground addsits own record
Extra vehicle$8

“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

What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 · 5

rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

81 sites · which ones have room · the site map

The sites, ranked

from 74 mapped sites
58 ftbetween you and the next site, typically
Least room039 17 ft041 17 ft063 20 ft

All 81 sites

74 of 81 sites located
Standard74
SleepsTakes a

Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 74 of the 81 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.

AREA HUNGRY GULCH001standard nonelectric61 ft1,168 ft702 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH002standard nonelectric61 ft1,229 ft730 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH003standard nonelectric72 ft1,129 ft780 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH004standard nonelectric51 ft1,050 ft771 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH005standard nonelectric42 ft888 ft756 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH006standard nonelectric51 ft1,060 ft730 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH007standard nonelectric84 ft1,085 ft660 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH008standard nonelectric101 ft945 ft691 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH009standard nonelectric129 ft969 ft543 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH010standard nonelectric79 ft864 ft459 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH011standard nonelectric79 ft801 ft416 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH012standard nonelectric75 ft689 ft394 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH013standard nonelectric85 ft757 ft509 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH014standard nonelectric48 ft775 ft589 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH015standard nonelectric48 ft785 ft636 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH016standard nonelectric43 ft833 ft702 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH017standard nonelectric42 ft846 ft745 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH018standard nonelectric28 ft840 ft803 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH019standard nonelectric28 ft862 ft793 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH020standard nonelectric47 ft793 ft799 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH021standard nonelectric69 ft783 ft871 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH022standard nonelectric89 ft735 ft722 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH023standard nonelectric69 ft661 ft674 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH024standard nonelectric38 ft646 ft611 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH025standard nonelectric38 ft609 ft630 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH026standard nonelectric61 ft618 ft569 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH027standard nonelectric64 ft850 ft876 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH028standard nonelectric64 ft857 ft938 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH029standard nonelectric40 ft787 ft942 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH030standard nonelectric40 ft820 ft976 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH031standard nonelectric56 ft697 ft933 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH032standard nonelectric43 ft646 ft944 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH033standard nonelectric32 ft622 ft904 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH034standard nonelectric32 ft597 ft920 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH035standard nonelectric37 ft558 ft871 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH036standard nonelectric37 ft523 ft881 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH037standard nonelectric46 ft477 ft802 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH038standard nonelectric46 ft433 ft820 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH039standard nonelectric17 ft525 ft639 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH040standard nonelectric82 ft425 ft745 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH041standard nonelectric17 ft533 ft649 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH042standard nonelectric40 ft515 ft612 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH043standard nonelectric87 ft421 ft615 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH044standard nonelectric75 ft616 ft450 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH045standard nonelectric60 ft605 ft395 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH046standard nonelectric65 ft547 ft459 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH047standard nonelectric60 ft560 ft413 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH048standard nonelectric88 ft462 ft517 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH049standard nonelectric60 ft516 ft441 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH050standard nonelectric28 ft273 ft838 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH051standard nonelectric81 ft362 ft621 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH052standard nonelectric61 ft541 ft552 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH053standard nonelectric80 ft325 ft693 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH054standard nonelectric80 ft265 ft773 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH055standard nonelectric44 ft308 ft798 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH056standard nonelectric28 ft266 ft866 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH057standard nonelectric89 ft435 ft1,035 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH058standard nonelectric33 ft513 ft1,103 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH059standard nonelectric33 ft535 ft1,088 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH060standard nonelectric74 ft514 ft1,014 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH061standard nonelectric88 ft464 ft483 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH062standard nonelectric91 ft466 ft496 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH063standard nonelectric20 ft500 ft521 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH064standard nonelectric20 ft517 ft502 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH065standard nonelectric60 ft541 ft529 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH066standard nonelectric20 ft517 ft603 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH067standard nonelectric20 ft537 ft595 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH068standard nonelectric57 ft500 ft660 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH069standard nonelectric74 ft440 ft726 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH070standard nonelectric56 ft366 ft768 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH071standard nonelectric56 ft312 ft802 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH072standard nonelectric75 ft193 ft773 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH073standard nonelectric100 ft367 ft586 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH074standard nonelectric75 ft207 ft740 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCH075standard nonelectric
AREA HUNGRY GULCH076standard nonelectric
AREA HUNGRY GULCH077standard nonelectric
AREA HUNGRY GULCH078standard nonelectric
AREA HUNGRY GULCHFS1-20type not stated20 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCHFS1-30type not stated30 ft
AREA HUNGRY GULCHFS1-30-Ntype not stated30 ft

25 of 81 listed

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Coordinate35.67094, -118.47112
The phone760-376-1815
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Tonight55°Clear
Saturday81°Sunny
Saturday Night52°Clear
Sunday80°Sunny

NWS forecast for Lake Isabella, CA

Typical weather

Typical May night 48°F, day 80°F.

110°32°20°

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.

Measured at: KERN RIVER PH 3, CA (USC00044523), 8 miles away and 53 ft higher

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send

Roadless country, and what’s coming for it

Roadless
Woolstaff41,445 acres · 10 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Who answers for this land

Vince Fong, official portrait

Hungry Gulch 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Who can change it · 3
Reservable on paper, bookable nowhere

The agency’s own record marks Hungry Gulch reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its campsites. The draft asks why, and what it would take to fix it.

Read the draft, or change the wording
To Vince Fong

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Hungry Gulch is reservable and not bookable

Dear Vince Fong,

I’m a constituent in California’s 20th district. Hungry Gulch, Sequoia National Forest, California is a federal campground the U.S. Forest Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 81 campsites, in any month asked.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why isn’t Hungry Gulch on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Hungry Gulch (Sequoia National Forest, California) via campanac.com
To Adam B. Schiff

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Hungry Gulch is reservable and not bookable

Dear Adam B. Schiff,

I’m a constituent in California. Hungry Gulch, Sequoia National Forest, California is a federal campground the U.S. Forest Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 81 campsites, in any month asked.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why isn’t Hungry Gulch on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Hungry Gulch (Sequoia National Forest, California) via campanac.com
To Alex Padilla

Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.

Subject Hungry Gulch is reservable and not bookable

Dear Alex Padilla,

I’m a constituent in California. Hungry Gulch, Sequoia National Forest, California is a federal campground the U.S. Forest Service records as reservable, and recreation.gov lists none of its 81 campsites, in any month asked.

I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why isn’t Hungry Gulch on the booking system, and what would it take to put it there?

Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do.

Sent about Hungry Gulch (Sequoia National Forest, California) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
The figures in these drafts: Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress (CRS Report RS20643) · Updated December 4, 2025 · “The ship’s final procurement cost was $13,316.5 million (i.e., about $13.3 billion) in then-year dollars.”
The figures in these drafts: Salary Table 2026-GS, Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase, Effective January 2026 (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) · Effective January 2026 · “Grade 5, Step 1: $34,799 (annual rate, before locality pay).”
The figures in these drafts: Update to Civilian Position Full Fringe Benefit Cost Factor, Federal Pay Raise Assumptions, and Inflation Factors used in OMB Circular No. A-76 (OMB Memorandum M-08-13) · March 11, 2008 · “the civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor needs to be adjusted downward, from 36.45 percent to 36.25 percent”

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: The agency lists it out of season. The season it publishes is the bar below.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.