Limestone Campground
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 19 mi
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $36From, per site
- Sites
- 19All of them booked ahead
- Season
- April 1 – October 31Open April 1 through October 31
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
Limestone Campground sits in an area dotted with oak and gray pine along the Upper Kern River, a designated Wild and Scenic River, at an elevation of 3,500 feet. Keep reading
Recreation
Whitewater rafting and kayaking on the Upper Kern River are popular activities. To learn more about the Upper Kern River, including safety and permitting requirements and a listing of local outfitters, visit the Sequoia National Forest’s overview of the area.
Facilities
The campground, located 16 miles north of Kernville, has 19 paved sites. Picnic areas, vault toilets are provided.
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 and Grizzly Falls. At various points along the river, gray pines, scrub oaks, grass and dry climate shrubs cling to steep canyon walls, while cottonwoods and willows line the water's edge.
Nearby Attractions
The campground provides a good base for day trips to the Sequoia National Park Trail of 100 Giants. The Giant Sequoia Mercantile offers a wide variety of books, maps, gifts, local art, camping supplies and other merchandise. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (760) 376-1269.
What the agency tells you
Swimming in the river is not recommended due to strong currents
Campground is small, not suitable for trailers and motorhomes
Must camp in defined camping area
Everything else this campground posts · 5
Electric hookups and water not available
Off-road vehicles are not permitted in the campground
Click here for more info about the 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.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 19 · 19 tent-only
- 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
- “…has 19 paved sites. Picnic areas, vault toilets are provided. Natural Features The Sequoia National…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek
- Night sky · 569th darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
Full this Saturdayread 15:46 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
1 campground has sites open within 30 miles, read 16:23 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 14 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 15 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 15:46 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
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
“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
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 1
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 16:23 UTC
- TuleSuccess Lake · 25 mi · 110 of 184 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 15:46 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
19 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 19 mapped sitesAll 19 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 19 of the 19 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. 19 of the 19 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 001 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 78 ft | 190 ft | 1,119 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 44 ft | 196 ft | 812 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 15 ft | 44 ft | 184 ft | 803 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 004 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 47 ft | 218 ft | 760 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 005 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 28 ft | 225 ft | 752 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 006 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 28 ft | 197 ft | 779 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 007 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 28 ft | 170 ft | 807 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 008 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 74 ft | 118 ft | 859 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 009 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 45 ft | 148 ft | 847 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 010 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 64 ft | 170 ft | 877 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 011 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 57 ft | 196 ft | 907 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 012 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 57 ft | 189 ft | 934 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 013 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 63 ft | 172 ft | 966 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 014 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 63 ft | 182 ft | 986 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 41 ft | 182 ft | 1,015 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 41 ft | 180 ft | 1,029 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 41 ft | 178 ft | 1,044 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 018 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 80 ft | 173 ft | 1,078 ft | $36 |
| LIMESTONE CAMPGROUND | 019 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 78 ft | 159 ft | 1,123 ft | $36 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Brush Creek Dispersed CampingSequoia National Forest · 0.1 mi
Fairview CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 2.5 mi
Long Meadow GroupGiant Sequoia National Monument · 6.0 mi
Goldledge CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 6.2 mi
Redwood MeadowGiant Sequoia National Monument · 6.6 miHorse Meadow CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 7.3 miOff of 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. From Kernville go north on Sierra Way/Mountain 99 for 16 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 Ponderosa, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 73°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical April night 35°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Limestone 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- 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
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Limestone Campground, Sequoia National Forest, California
Dear Vince Fong, I’m a constituent in California’s 20th district. I tried to camp at Limestone Campground, Sequoia National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Limestone Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 14 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Limestone Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Limestone Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Limestone Campground (Sequoia National Forest, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Limestone Campground, Sequoia National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Limestone Campground, Sequoia National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Limestone Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 14 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Limestone Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Limestone Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Limestone Campground (Sequoia National Forest, California) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Limestone Campground, Sequoia National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Limestone Campground, Sequoia National Forest, California, and couldn’t. All 19 sites at Limestone Campground are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 14 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Limestone Campground keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Limestone Campground. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Limestone Campground (Sequoia National Forest, California) via campanac.com