It was a Friday night; Memorial Day weekend, 2024; and we hadn't made a campground reservation yet…read more (Lesson learned!) Kings Canyon was completely full, but Recreation.gov showed that Island Park Campground still had 2-3 sites available. We weren't familiar with the campground, but it was kind of on our way between Kings Canyon and Santa Cruz, CA -- our next destination. Sited on a lake, it looked good in the photographs, so we made a reservation for one of the available tent sites where we would stay in our Class B RV. Our GPS took us along a picturesque, but narrow and windy road, and we eventually came to beautiful views of the lake. (Route out, towards Fresno was easier). Our site was interesting. The paved parking space for our Class B RV was significantly sloped. However, there was a flat tent site, fire ring, and picnic table directly overlooking the beautiful lake. We peacefully sat at the table enjoying the afternoon sun, and watching a few kayakers. We later walked around the campground. There was a section with larger RVs, with families that seemed to know each other. Kids were swimming and freely running around. People were walking their dogs. Others were cooking dinner on their grills. Upon further inspection, we were surprised to discover that there were campsites and a port-a-potty that were under water! (A ranger later confirmed that there had been recent flooding). Being Memorial Day weekend, the campground was full, and became increasingly noisy as the evening elapsed. However, the strangest thing happened around 2 am. We were fast asleep in our small RV when we were both awoken to the crackling of a fire just outside our backdoor. It turned out that the tent campers in the site adjacent to us decided to start a large fire in their fire pit at that crazy hour and it was right next to where we were trying to sleep. Pros. Beautiful setting with views of the lake and hills. Water activities. Friendly and helpful rangers. Well-priced, especially with NPS discount for seniors with passes. Free showers. Pleasant temperatures in late May. Cons. Noisy and crowded on Memorial Day weekend. Many sites are too close together. Lake itself was flooded, with some campsites under water. Ladies bathroom near sinks was flooded, which attracted bugs.

Camp ground was easy to check in. You check in through the website. The next day park rangers will…read moreask for a receipt and give you a parking pass. Bathroom were very near campsites. They include toilets and showers. There is no market store in the campground. If you are looking for ice. The nearest was 8 minute drive to a small store. Lake can either be walking distance or driving.

This looks like it USED to be a beautiful area to hike, but as of 2/2021 it is designated by fire…read more This trail won't be used for many years:(

A very hard to find place located in a recreation area that was in complete disarray…read more Wow, I like when things are "off the beaten path" but this was more like "hey, need an idea for a location for a horror movie" or "is this where they would film a California version of True Detective?". Yikes, if someone who works for the bureau of land management reads this, please clean up this area since it has some potential. This trailhead I was looking for, located in Coalinga Springs Park, leads up to Kreyenhagen Peak--a different kind of landscape I really wanted to see and hike through--supposedly there is a buried treasure up there and everything! The idea was to find a hike in a different area in some familiar mountains I see all the time driving up and down the 5. However, going into it, I knew it was going to be hard. All the directions online were just general and not specific. Coupled with the tons of signs along a hidden road which said "private property" and "no hunting", overgrown brush, and scenes of blighted old houses and junk strewn about it was really hard to find. So, I'm going to describe how to get there for you. First, you want to add the location I added to your google maps and navigate there. What you are looking for is a road called Coalinga Mineral Springs Road and it is about 20 miles west of the city of Coalinga. You're going to drive down this road for about 5 miles; riding past blighted houses, some active ranches (what are these people doing back here?), old junk (trucks, machinery, bathtubs), and some beehives. You'll come to an area guarded by two blighted houses--drive a little past that and you'll see the remains of what appears to be a former picnic area. There's a bathroom (see pic) and lots of overgrowth. In the Northeast corner you'll see a sign for the trailhead (again see pics). I took some hopefully useful pics for you. The trail itself is overgrown with mega-amounts of bugs you'll need to look out for (ticks especially). However, the area is really beautiful and worth it if you have the appropriate gear such as pants and DEET, or a flamethrower (JK). The peak is about 1.5 miles of hiking to an eventual elevation of around 3400 ft. The main problem I have with the area is not nature's fault (e.g. the heat, flora, and fauna). No, it's the creeptastic houses and overgrowth--I mean, look at the pic of the men's room I posted. In addition, I didn't even mention the guy who was camping out near one of the blighted houses. What, exactly, is he doing there? I know people hunt around there but really the campground/picnic area was in shambles so I don't know (we did find some spent shotgun shells). The odd thing is that someone is putting printed out maps in the container near the trailhead so someone must know about this place and want people to hike it--who knows, maybe they want only the most stalwart hikers to work at finding it!

Visited on more than one occasion. My last visit was June 2025. Our RV spot was perfect. My…read morediscontent was due to the lack of hygiene in the bathrooms. They are not cleaned and disinfected throughout the day. There's a sign inside the bathrooms telling the customer to call for service The staff were unresponsive to my concern. The store /office is only open from 10;00-4:00pm, requiring customer to wait till the next day to address issues The pool is open from 10am-10pm Great hours but be advised once the sun goes down there is minimal light There is ample places to sit by the pool and a few cabanas.

We stayed here the last weekend of June, to avoid driving to Yosemite 2x in a weekend for our boys…read moresummer camp. We stayed in cabin 54 The pictures on the website look very well maintained and clean. Yet in person it was very unkept. The pool was slightly green, and Park had a few broken pieces, and a ton of weeds. I am so glad we didn't bring our golden doodle, because the dog park was dirt and weeks, along with our cabin area. We arrived an hour and a half before check in, we were told by the lady at the front desk that our cabin was a priority, however after an hour of waiting we had to leave to go pick up our son, we were told at 2pm that they were just need to add linens to our cabin and it will be ready, but we had to go. Check in time is 3pm. When we arrived back to the park at 4:30pm, we were told that the staff was still putting linens in our cabin. We couldn't check in until 5pm... 2 hours after their check in time. When I booked this cabin, I specifically asked the staff if the beds came with linens, or if we had to bring our own. I was told that this is similar to a hotel and all lines are provided. Grated after we checked in the office closed. We didn't realize till bed time that both bunks up stairs, and the pull out bed and no linens!! I tried calling the after hours number, only to be forwarded to voicemail. We had dirty dishes in the cabinets, old spices with spice residue in the cabinet, let over open bag of ice in the freezer, a sock in bedroom drawer. The TV WiFi wasn't working, dusty and dirty fans in the bathroom and the bedroom. AC unit in the living room wasn't working. The bedroom had 2 bedside lamps, one with a busted lamp shade and the other missing completely. The bedroom light, was flickering, and then shutting completely off, we had concerns of a shortage, but was told it was the light bulbs. The loft carpet smelt like piss. Siding coming off the staircase. Kitchen chandelier was hanging up by a plastic shoe hook. Just felt really dingy and dirty after seeing things. For the price it definitely wasn't worth it: the workers were semi helpful, and refunded me a night.

Camped there on may 20th/21st and ALL of the restrooms were closed for maintenance during our stay…read more The campground guy didn't mention this when we checked in, we asked him later and he gave I don't give a shit attitude and said we could use the restrooms at the boat dock. Zero stars, would not recommmed.,

Beautiful! Relaxing! The water is sooo clear! Small safe feeling campground ... host are on it!read more

Very accommodating people. Very nice, safe, cozy place to stay. What more do you need?read more

This used to be one of our favorite places to camp. We've had two bad experiences here in the last…read moreyear. The neighboring campers have had loud parties well past the quiet hour curfew. This last time, it was several days in a row. We will not be returning.

I have stayed at plenty of KOAs and I thought they had standards. We were backed up to a busy road…read more It was 100° and zero shade at our sites. One of our neighbors was smoking weed and that's all we could smell. Only 1 working shower. Would definitely never go back unless I was desperate and had my own trailer/RV with me

Visalia/Sequoia National Park KOA (Visalia, CA) June 18, 2023…read more We pulled in around 1 pm. We got checked in right away and were given a map to our site. We were here a couple years ago heading back from Barstow to Sacramento. It's a good in between stop. It was eerie when we were here before because the entire valley was socked in with forest fire smoke coming down from the Sierras. This time, the skies were clear and we could actually breathe. Funny thing how we take clean air for granted until we don't have it. But I digress. This park is similar to a lot of KOAs we've stayed at. They have a nice checkin counter and store with basic items, a swimming pool, game room with ping pong table, a propane refill station, and a laundry mat. The thing that's a little peculiar about this particular KOA is that it sits in the middle of a neighborhood. As you're driving in, you're thinking to yourself "are we in the right place?" But yes you are, as you see the familiar KOA signs at the entrance. They have RV and tent sites here. There do seem to be some long term residents as well, but overall, the park is quiet and reasonably well maintained. The trash area had trash overflowing on the first day we were here but that was gone by the next day. Probably the biggest disappointment was that the game room was closed. No ping-pong or pool on this day. The other thing that's problematic is they don't seem to have a very good security system. We were warned after arriving that there had been bicycle thefts from the park. Apparently the Goshen area, where this park is located, isn't the best part of Visalia. I didn't get a strong sense that that was a problem, but it's just something to be aware of. Your about 10 minutes away from Downtown Visalia, which is a nice area with some good breweries and eateries. We went there after we got camp set up and had lunch at Brewbaker Brewery (good food, limited beer selection - but good, nice atmosphere). Our main reason for staying here was to checkout Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park, but be aware, you're still about 45 minutes from the park entrance gate. So the name of the RV park is a little misleading. The drive to the National Park is nice though. You go past Kaweah Lake and Three Rivers, which is along the Kaweah River. Not sure well come back here.

I don't know how to even describe this park, maybe, magical... The sequoias are majestic with sugar…read morepines sprinkled all around. I was here with the Sisters Corp. to do some volunteer work. I did not want to miss the opportunity to give my time for this beautiful place. This is my first time to visit this National Park and I know now it will not be my last. My first day at the volunteer camp group site as we gathered at the table to meet each other and go over the agenda for the weekend we had the opportunity to see a black bear casually roam through our campground near the tents (one of them was mine). We were all informed prior to arriving not to leave any scented items in the tents. No one wonder the bear kept moving along, but with the help of our camp host shooing it away from the campground. This is something we learned from the rangers, is to shoo them away so they don't get in the habit of coming around. The park offers many hiking trails, I had the chance to do one of many, which was the Long Meadow Trail. Very beautiful, plenty of foliage and evidence of a bear in the area. Another part of the park I got to visit was General Sherman. There is a park ranger that will tell you the history of the General Sherman tree. You can wait in a long line to take a pic in front of the tree with a General Sherman sign. Or you can take a pic around the fenced majestic tree. I choose not to wait in line. I had the chance to shuttle to General Sherman tree from the Museum. The Shuttle is free and seems to come every 10-15 min. From General Sherman I also shuttled to the Lodgepole marketplace and visitor center. In this area are bathrooms with showers (coin operated, quarters). The Marketplace has an area to order some food and also a section where you can purchase some ice cream by the scoop. The store offers assorted ice cream bars. The visitor center offers gift items as well as the marketplace. At the front of the visitor center they had a ranger available at a booth if you had any questions. This place is quite busy! Parking lot is a madhouse. Nearby is a campground you may want to check out or ask the ranger for some info. If you can, arrive early, find parking at the Museum and shuttle to everything if you can. Warning, when I was doing volunteer work in the parking lot across from the museum we witnessed a black bear enjoying some berries in the bushes. I'm not sure if they will venture into the parking lot with a lot human activity going on but be careful what you leave in your car, anything and everything with a scent. The park has so much to see. I look forward to returning to volunteer and to take advantage of what the park has to offer.

Best national park I've ever been to and that's saying a lot…read more It's magical, and I highly recommend getting to the Sherman trailhead prior to 9:30am if you want a parking spot. Takes about an hour to get in there, up there and parked so plan accordingly. The congress trail was amazing and for a 3.5 mile hike it took about 2.5 hours with frequent stops for pictures. Highly recommend a stop at lodge pole for refreshments and merch. Incredible experience from start to finish.

I've been "glamping" before when I was younger - my family used to rent a cabin and we would then…read moreexplore the mountains. However, I had never camped in a tent prior to this. However, Horse Creek was a good introduction to the camping world. At $20 a night, you get your own campsite that can fit up to 8-10 people. We were able to fit about 4 tents. The ground was flat enough to set up camp, and the grounds to eat and chill were spacious enough. As for the bathrooms, the showers are fairly clean and the toilets aren't too shabby either. It seemed like they were cleaned on a daily basis. As for entertainment, the campsite is right near the lake so every morning I woke up to the beautiful sight of nature - the sunset was pretty as well. The lake wasn't too dirty, although I would recommend water shoes. Also, the main office has friendly staff to answer any questions. Ultimately, if you want a campground that's at the bottom of the mountain (it's only 10-12 miles away from the entrance of the Sequoia National Park) that's clean and family-friendly, this place is extremely solid. I highly recommend it.

I enjoy car camping. Not quite the serious "hike into your spot" kind of camping. But drive up,…read moreunload, pitch a tent and relax. This campground was perfectly just that. The sites are RIGHT on the shore of the lake. In fact, the site we reserved was UNDER WATER when we arrived in early May. They're not joking when they say the whole campground is closed in the summer months due to flooding. Thankfully they only allow half the sites to be reserved and they moved us to an open spot, right at the front. It also gave us an easy spot to fish from the shore in the mornings and evenings. I'm glad we chose this campground when finding a weekend getaway. I heard it gets crowded inside the main campgrounds in Sequoia Park. Sites are well spaced out. Each spot had either a canopy or a tree for shade. Of course theres a fire pit too. The bathrooms were sufficient. 1 shower inside, with hot water. The local general store is within a 5 minute drive to get firewood and supplies and Kaweah Marina is close by too to rent a patio boat to enjoy the day on the lake. They will close the gate entrance at 9pm sharp. But you can park in the dirt lot or next to the gate over night. The exit is open all night, but its got those 1 way spike strips... exit only.

We got to visit the section of the beach that's right by San Simeon campground. There's a path from…read morethe campground that goes under PCH to connect to the beach. We went during the fall of 2022, not too cold in the afternoon but you'll probably want to wear a long sleeve since it's a little windy there. It's a nice peaceful beach, we saw lots out pull over spots along PCH so there's more than just one opportunity to check this beach out.

This is the beach below San Simeon's hotels, though it's often confused with San Simeon State Beach…read moreand the San Simeon Creek Beach.. It's a sandy beach with plenty of small rocks. This beach was made for long walks and is generally not very crowded. You can park off Pico Avenue and walk down to the beach from there. If you head north on this beach you can walk past Pico Creek and pond and walk over some large beach rocks. Heading south will take you Jung Trail and the area's best tide pools.