Hungry Gulch
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 4 mi
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
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
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
Porta Potties available
No hookups available
Everything else this campground posts · 4
No off-road vehicle use allowed in the campground
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.
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.
The Camp Host is located at Boulder Gulch Campground across the street.
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
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
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.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 10
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
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
The sites
81 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 74 mapped sitesAll 81 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 74 of the 81 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 001 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 1,168 ft | 702 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 002 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 1,229 ft | 730 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 003 | standard nonelectric | 72 ft | 1,129 ft | 780 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 004 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 1,050 ft | 771 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 005 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 888 ft | 756 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 006 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 1,060 ft | 730 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 007 | standard nonelectric | 84 ft | 1,085 ft | 660 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 008 | standard nonelectric | 101 ft | 945 ft | 691 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 009 | standard nonelectric | 129 ft | 969 ft | 543 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 010 | standard nonelectric | 79 ft | 864 ft | 459 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 011 | standard nonelectric | 79 ft | 801 ft | 416 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 012 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 689 ft | 394 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 013 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | 757 ft | 509 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 014 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 775 ft | 589 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 015 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 785 ft | 636 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 016 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 833 ft | 702 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 017 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 846 ft | 745 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 018 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 840 ft | 803 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 019 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 862 ft | 793 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 020 | standard nonelectric | 47 ft | 793 ft | 799 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 021 | standard nonelectric | 69 ft | 783 ft | 871 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 022 | standard nonelectric | 89 ft | 735 ft | 722 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 023 | standard nonelectric | 69 ft | 661 ft | 674 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 024 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 646 ft | 611 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 025 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 609 ft | 630 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 026 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 618 ft | 569 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 027 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 850 ft | 876 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 028 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 857 ft | 938 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 029 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 787 ft | 942 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 030 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 820 ft | 976 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 031 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 697 ft | 933 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 032 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 646 ft | 944 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 033 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 622 ft | 904 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 034 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 597 ft | 920 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 035 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 558 ft | 871 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 036 | standard nonelectric | 37 ft | 523 ft | 881 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 037 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 477 ft | 802 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 038 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 433 ft | 820 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 039 | standard nonelectric | 17 ft | 525 ft | 639 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 040 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 425 ft | 745 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 041 | standard nonelectric | 17 ft | 533 ft | 649 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 042 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 515 ft | 612 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 043 | standard nonelectric | 87 ft | 421 ft | 615 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 044 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 616 ft | 450 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 045 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 605 ft | 395 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 046 | standard nonelectric | 65 ft | 547 ft | 459 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 047 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 560 ft | 413 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 048 | standard nonelectric | 88 ft | 462 ft | 517 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 049 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 516 ft | 441 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 050 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 273 ft | 838 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 051 | standard nonelectric | 81 ft | 362 ft | 621 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 052 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 541 ft | 552 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 053 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 325 ft | 693 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 054 | standard nonelectric | 80 ft | 265 ft | 773 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 055 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 308 ft | 798 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 056 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | 266 ft | 866 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 057 | standard nonelectric | 89 ft | 435 ft | 1,035 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 058 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 513 ft | 1,103 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 059 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 535 ft | 1,088 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 060 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 514 ft | 1,014 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 061 | standard nonelectric | 88 ft | 464 ft | 483 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 062 | standard nonelectric | 91 ft | 466 ft | 496 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 063 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 500 ft | 521 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 064 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 517 ft | 502 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 065 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 541 ft | 529 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 066 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 517 ft | 603 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 067 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 537 ft | 595 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 068 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 500 ft | 660 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 069 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 440 ft | 726 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 070 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 366 ft | 768 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 071 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 312 ft | 802 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 072 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 193 ft | 773 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 073 | standard nonelectric | 100 ft | 367 ft | 586 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 074 | standard nonelectric | 75 ft | 207 ft | 740 ft | |
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 075 | standard nonelectric | ||||
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 076 | standard nonelectric | ||||
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 077 | standard nonelectric | ||||
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | 078 | standard nonelectric | ||||
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | FS1-20 | type not stated | 20 ft | |||
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | FS1-30 | type not stated | 30 ft | |||
| AREA HUNGRY GULCH | FS1-30-N | type not stated | 30 ft |
25 of 81 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Boulder GulchSequoia National Forest · 0.0 mi
French GulchSequoia National Forest · 1.0 mi
Pioneer PointSequoia National Forest · 1.7 miAuxiliary Dam CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 2.0 miMain Dam CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 2.0 miFrom Bakersfield take Highway 178, to the town of Lake Isabella. From Lake Isabella, take Highway 155 North approximately four 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 Lake Isabella, 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 · a letter you can send
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

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 →
Who can change it · 3
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.
- The member who votes the moneyVince FongU.S. Representative · California’s 20th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAdam B. SchiffU.S. Senator · California
- Your senator, on the same appropriationAlex PadillaU.S. Senator · California
Read the draft, or change the wording
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
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
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