San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex

Great place near modesto if you’re into wildlife, but not much to look at at all. Not sure if there’s a ticket price… I went as a class fieldtrip. Right at the entrance you’ll see a cat hanging out on a tv. The cat is friendly, but will ignore you. Some stuff I saw like beaver and otter fur, taxonomy elk head heads, etc. Restrooms to the left at entrance.
There’s something called an auto tour, which is driving down a certain path looking for tule elk in your car. Bring binoculars!

Really nice national park with unfortunately not a lot going on in the middle of the day in summer. Popular spot for wintering birds and they have a herd of tule elk but in the 90 degree heat they were nowhere to be seen.
The visitor center is really new and modern. It’s a really cool building and they’ve done a great job with setting it into the landscape.
We were the only ones there and enjoyed the exhibits on the local wildlife including the remains of a barn owl on the ground in front of the viewing area (guess the great horned owls have been hunting recently).
I’d like to return in the winter to see all the fowl.

The San Luis Wildlife Refuge is near Modesto and is an easy visit from there. But the savannah look isn’t that beautiful, especially as opposed to forests. Driving there involved a long rural road.
The visitor center was okay, but left more to be desired. This doesn’t really ever feel that different from a city or a county park. You look at swamps and just a few more birds then if you did not take that long drive.
Go if you’re in the area, but not otherwise.

Have driven by this numerous times and thought it was just a bunch of flat land… yes, it is but it’s well thought out and the elk reserve was excellent to drive around. Next trip we’ll explore the waterfowl area. So nice. Want to get a nice camera to take some wildlife pictures… we saw SOOOO many bunnies — the hawks must be happy, happy, happy with all that found source.

This was an out-​of-​the way stop for my group while we were on our way to the Great Grasslands State Park, but I think it became the highlight of our trip. The visitor complex is beautiful and Platinum LEED certified (super high energy efficiency rating). The visitor center is absolutely charming and the staff are so knowledgeable and eager to show you around. This building serves as an office for all the local state parks so it’s quite large. The elk are easily viewable and inside the building is a very posh lounging /​viewing area. If you’re a wildlife (or Tule elk) enthusiast then this is a great stop, you’ll certainly learn PLENTY in the visitors center — it’s like a smaller version of the Yosemite Visitors Center.