Paradise Cove
2Heads up2 fires, nearest 3 mi
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $36From, per site
- Sites
- 511 on recreation.gov
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Paradise Cove Campground sits near Lake Isabella in the beautiful Sequoia National Forest. The 11,000-acre lake marks the division between the Upper and Lower Kern Rivers. Keep reading
Recreation
This year-round campground is near Lake Isabella, one of California's largest reservoirs. Water activities such as swimming, water skiing and wind surfing are popular. The lake is known for trout fishing during the colder months. Other species include black and white crappie, bluegill, catfish and largemouth bass.
Facilities
The campground has 46 sites that are divided into two sections. The upper section has back-in camp sites, and the lower section has side-by-side parking. All camp sites have a view of the lake.
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.
Nearby Attractions
The campground provides a great base for day trips to the Trail of a Hundred Giants and numerous Sequoia groves in the Giant Sequoia National Monument. You cannot access Sequoia National Park with a day trip. 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
FS1-40(N) is not a camp site number, you will be assigned a site upon arrival.
Six people per site including children
Temperatures can reach the 100s in the summer
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Hookups are not available
Off-road vehicles are not permitted in the campground
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.
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.
Site length includes tow vehicle
RV Dump Station is available here. The use fee is $25.00.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 51
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 51
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek
- Boating
- Night sky · 891st darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Something open on 28 of the next 28 bookable nightsread 16:04 UTC
recreation.gov lists 1 of the 51 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBookedNot reservable
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.
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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:04 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
51 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 49 mapped sitesAll 51 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. 51 of the 51 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 01 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 736 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 02 | standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 797 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 03 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 720 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 04 | standard nonelectric | 60 ft | 780 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 05 | standard nonelectric | 57 ft | 664 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 06 | standard nonelectric | 58 ft | 689 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 07 | standard nonelectric | 82 ft | 652 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 08 | standard nonelectric | 62 ft | 578 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 09 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 526 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 10 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 487 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 11 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 445 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 12 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 425 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 13 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 376 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 14 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 382 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 15 | standard nonelectric | 54 ft | 413 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 16 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 449 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 17 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 535 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 18 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 475 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 19 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 557 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 20 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 500 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 21 | standard nonelectric | 51 ft | 520 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 22 | standard nonelectric | 53 ft | 596 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 23 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 521 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 24 | standard nonelectric | 93 ft | 633 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 25 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 664 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 26 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 539 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 27 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 685 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 28 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 560 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 29 | standard nonelectric | 71 ft | 585 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 30 | standard nonelectric | 87 ft | 654 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 31 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 652 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 32 | standard nonelectric | 52 ft | 687 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 33 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 607 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 34 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 632 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 35 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 613 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 36 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 556 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 37 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 501 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 38 | standard nonelectric | 59 ft | 568 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 39 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 468 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 40 | standard nonelectric | 64 ft | 440 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 41 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 512 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 42 | standard nonelectric | 105 ft | 443 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 43 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | 530 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 44 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 543 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 45 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 669 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 46 | standard nonelectric | 74 ft | 724 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 47 | standard nonelectric | 86 ft | 785 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 48 | standard nonelectric | $36 | |||
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 49 | standard nonelectric | 92 ft | 839 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | 50 | standard nonelectric | 85 ft | 757 ft | $36 | |
| AREA PARADISE COVE | FS1-40(N) | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | $36 |
25 of 51 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Old IsabellaSequoia National Forest · 1.7 miAuxiliary Dam CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 2.1 miCamp 9 Lakeside Group Campgrounds2.8 miCamp 9 Recreation Area Campground2.8 mi
Boulder GulchSequoia National Forest · 2.9 miFrom Bakersfield, California, take Highway 178 east to the town of Lake Isabella. Staying on 178 east, travel approximately 3 miles to Paradise Cove 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 October night 46°F, day 81°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 31°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
Paradise Cove 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 →