Headquarters Campground - Kernville, California

Jen S.

Location is what makes this campground great. I forgot to take any pictures! We were here 4th of July weekend. The water level was great for swimming. The current wasn't strong on the south end, you could float in a tube mostly in place. It was stronger towards the north end.

I was in campsite 003 with our 23' trailer Not much shade, but it was a good site. Camp host was really friendly. Bathrooms are stinky, but that's to be expected.

rinl

I honestly wish this review was a better outcome because my friends and family have been coming here for 10 years. We stayed from the 25 to 28 of july and this year has been the worst one yet. Apparently this campground got under new management and things changed. Let me just say it is the worst hosts ever and kept threatening that the ranger would be coming over to check on everyone if we didnt quiet down. We had not even been too loud and this happened on the last night we were staying. I know their job is to check around that no one is breaking rules but please, who needs to be circling and checking on everyone every 5 minutes. Not just that but the fact that she would bother about something or anything she could find. We felt as if this vacation was ruined because of these hosts. We had been asked to take stuff down because we couldnt be hanging anything off the trees but there were many people around who had more than one thing hanging which were hammocks. When it came to the rules’ curfew, it says that all music and things had to be turned off. While it was still 9:40, the host cane over to say we were making everyone miserable and that we were breaking rules by not turning it off. Let me remind you it was 9:40, not 10:00 so we still had a right to continue with our music and fun for 20 more minutes but she had assumed it was 10:00 already. She spoke to us very badly and didnt even let us explain ourselves and that we were not in the wrong. After all this, we all went to sleep and once laying to rest, we could hear people laughing very loud and blasting music at 2 in the morning. So many things were horrible and also the fact that were was no toilet paper in the bathrooms so we had to find something to use. After all this, Having to constantly abide by the rules which we were already doing, the host ruined our whole vacation. I hope management changes soon because it was not it. All other years were amazing and this one just happened to be the worst of them all. Worst management of this camp and hopefully they find somewhere else to bother every 5 minutes.

Martina Cordova

been coming here with family and friends for 10 years and have never had any complaints until this year with a horrible camp host. she complained about every little thing to us, made us take down ropes when others also had some in their camp. we had music playing before curfew and she still came to complain that we were too loud at 9:51pm. she was arguing with everyone at the campground: worst host we’ve had.

Raylenna Barela

Just came back from camping there this weekend and had a great time..the reason I’m giving 3 stars because the lady that was the groundskeeper was horrible!! She kept following people and questioning people including my family and friends ! Been coming here for years and never had this problem

Forest Ferkin

I stayed there in June 2023 (less than a week ago as I write this review).
The pros: the campsites tend to have lots of spots for tents, which we used. We were a group of 17 in 3 campsites. The bathrooms, which are vault toilets were very clean and smelled good which I didn't expect. The water wasn't in the campsites but wasn't too far. It was quiet at night, and it is so close to the Kern River that it muffles a lot of noise. The bear boxes were in good shape, but we didn't have any problems with animals.
The cons: Some of the best campsites were damaged by the high river and are not repaired, just roped off. Lots of the remaining sites are quite sunny. There were no "safe pools" of the Kern nearby, so we stayed out of the river. There were plenty of mosquitos at twilight, so bug spray is highly recommended.

Laura Lowe

We've been coming here for years. It's a great spot for fishing or summer water play. Be watchful for snakes and critters in the summer. The best part is: 1- This spot is open year round allowing us to visit multiple times a year, 2- right around the corner is the River Kern store that's got a little bit of everything including delicious tri-tip sandwiches that we always splurge on, once per visit.

Λndy Hoang

Tmobile: little to no service
Verizon: little to service maybe 1 bar if you're lucky
But when you drive back into town, you'll get service. Just be aware. The stars are amazing at night! The river is also close by and has some rainbow trout

Andrea Gonzalez

We camped here on October 7th and 8th. The site host was very friendly. They don't have many sites that fit an RV. However, ours did fit perfectly. The total length with the car is about 30 feet, and we had no room to spare. I think something longer would not even be able to navigate the campsite road (tight narrowish turns). We were told there was other parking for the car if it didn't all fit. The website doesn't note generator hours, so I'll note here that the host told us we could use it outside of quiet hours (10pm-6am). This is mostly a tent campsite, and we were the only RV outside of the host. The campsite we used was 43, and the website was accurate about the back row of sites not having much shade. However, the sites were pretty large, which might make up for it. The back row of sites is also right off the road,however, headlights from cars going by while we were around the campfire was a little annoying. My only big complaint is that there weren't really any good places to even go down and look at the Kern River that we were able to find. Most entrance areas were out of someone else's campsite. I was pleasantly surprised that the mosquitoes were not bad at all. Overall, those were minor inconveniences, and we enjoyed our stay. This campsite was pricier than what I usually see, IMO, but that might be due to its closeness to Kernville. It's like an 8 minute drive.