Sandy Flat
1Heads up1 fire 11 mi away
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:10 UTC
- A night
- $36–$144Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 3227 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
Sandy Flat Campground is set back from the Lower Kern River at an altitude of 2,300 feet near the town of Lake Isabella. Campsites are a short walk from the river, offering countless recreational opportunities for visitors. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, trout fishing, river wading and floating are popular pursuits. The Hobo Fishing Trail, a short walking trail, is nearby. Click here to learn more about the Lower Kern River, including safety and permitting requirements and a listing of local outfitters.
Facilities
Campsites are set along one loop in largely open sites. Large boulders, relics of the ice age, are scattered throughout the campground. River access is in the day camp area. Drinking water, picnic areas and 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.
Nearby Attractions
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
Six people per site including children
Hookups are not available
River views are limited due to bank overgrowth
Everything else this campground posts · 4
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
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 32 · 8 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 50 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…area. Drinking water, picnic areas and vault toilets are provided. Natural Features The Sequoia National…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…River access is in the day camp area. Drinking water, picnic areas and vault toilets are provided.…”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Lake, River, Creek
- Fishing
- Night sky · 921st darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:10 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
Every one of the 21 sites on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 27 are free on Thu, Oct 22. read 16:10 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 16
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 rates for this season, $36–$144 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 16:10 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
32 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 27 mapped sitesAll 32 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. 27 of the 32 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| SANDY FLAT | 001 | type not stated | 25 ft | 3,346 ft | ||
| SANDY FLAT | 002 | type not stated | 40 ft | 3,399 ft | ||
| SANDY FLAT | 003 | type not stated | 40 ft | 3,448 ft | ||
| SANDY FLAT | 004 | type not stated | 30 ft | 3,367 ft | ||
| SANDY FLAT | 005 | type not stated | 35 ft | 3,311 ft | ||
| SANDY FLAT | 006 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 56 ft | 3,368 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 007 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 56 ft | 3,423 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 009 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 85 ft | 3,604 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 010 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 85 ft | 3,593 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 011 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 41 ft | 3,712 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 012 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 41 ft | 3,752 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 54 ft | 3,805 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 014 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 3,751 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 42 ft | 3,828 ft | $36 |
| SANDY FLAT | 016 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 42 ft | 3,811 ft | $36 |
| SANDY FLAT | 017 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 20 ft | 3,796 ft | $36 |
| SANDY FLAT | 018 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 20 ft | 3,784 ft | $36 |
| SANDY FLAT | 019 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 34 ft | 3,771 ft | $36 |
| SANDY FLAT | 020 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 3,707 ft | $36 |
| SANDY FLAT | 021 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 58 ft | 3,670 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 022 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 95 ft | 3,608 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 023 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 3,504 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 68 ft | 3,441 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 026 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 96 ft | 3,307 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 027 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 96 ft | 3,341 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 028 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 76 ft | 3,208 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 029 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 83 ft | 3,233 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 030 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 75 ft | 3,157 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 031 | tent only nonelectric | 15 ft | 58 ft | 3,182 ft | $36 |
| SANDY FLAT | 032 | standard nonelectric | 50 ft | 41 ft | 3,149 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 033 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 75 ft | 3,112 ft | $36–$144 |
| SANDY FLAT | 034 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 41 ft | 3,116 ft | $36 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 32 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Hobo CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 0.1 miSandy Flat CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 0.6 miMain Dam CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 5.4 mi
Pioneer PointSequoia National Forest · 5.7 miEvans Flat CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 5.7 miAuxiliary Dam CampgroundSequoia National Forest · 6.0 miFrom Highway 99, take Highway 178 east for 4 miles. Turn right on Borel Road, then right onto the Old Canyon Road. Continue about 2 miles, then turn right into Sandy Flats Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Bodfish, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 73°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 27°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 · 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
Sandy 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 →
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 Sandy Flat, Sequoia National Forest, California
Dear Vince Fong, I’m a constituent in California’s 20th district. I tried to camp at Sandy Flat, Sequoia National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 27 of the 32 campsites the agency files at Sandy Flat, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 21 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sandy Flat keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sandy Flat. 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 Sandy Flat (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 Sandy Flat, Sequoia National Forest, California
Dear Adam B. Schiff, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Sandy Flat, Sequoia National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 27 of the 32 campsites the agency files at Sandy Flat, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 21 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sandy Flat keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sandy Flat. 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 Sandy Flat (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 Sandy Flat, Sequoia National Forest, California
Dear Alex Padilla, I’m a constituent in California. I tried to camp at Sandy Flat, Sequoia National Forest, California, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 27 of the 32 campsites the agency files at Sandy Flat, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 21 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Sandy Flat keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Sandy Flat. 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 Sandy Flat (Sequoia National Forest, California) via campanac.com