Hungry Gulch Campground

Pros–
Its close to Kernville (10 mins)
Its super close to the lake and beach access
Cons–
Not alot of shade, get there early to try and get a spot with some shade
The bathrooms were gross
Our shovel was stolen out of our campground
You can hear the highway from most of the sites
This is a average ok campground, nothing amazing but it gets the job done. About half of the sites have no shade and alot of them are really small, so get there early as you can not reserve what spot you want beforehand. Spot 50 was nice, alot of shade, close to the bathroom and had alot of big rocks to create a cool environment.
If you are going to the beach I would recommend going to French Glutch day area, its a paved road most of the way down and a short walk from there (you can drive down but our small car previously got stuck on one of the other dirt/​sand roads down to the beach and didn’t want to risk it). There is also a Indian Center in the parking lot that is worth checking out.
I would definitely make the drive over to Kernville and check out the antique stores and Kern River Brewing, great food and beers.

The campground is located at lat/​long 35.67 194, –118.47 222. If you put those coordinates into GoogleMaps, it will take you there.
I have not yet camped here, but there are trails to Isabella Peak and Coso Peak from this campground. It is a short hike (~3 mi) with little elevation gain. At the top of Isabella Peak, there is a bench where you can sit and take in the scenery.
If you’re willing to put in the work, Isabella Peak is a great location to take in the Fourth of July fireworks over Lake Isabella.

This is an unbiased review based on the place not preferance because my idea of camping involves beaches.
So the place is a clean campground with some small trees that provide shade. You have to get there early as this is a first come first pick type of campsite. So if want some shade get there early! They provide a table and BBQ/​fire pit. The BBQ/​fire pit are very low to the ground so you do have to crowch down to cook. The bathrooms are quarter operated and are very clean. This campsite is walking distance to the lake, well let me make that more specific. Walking distance as in you are crossing the main highway and walking down a hill to the lake which means a hike up the hill on the way back. So if you are challenged with knee issues or back issues it may not be a good a idea to walk to the lake but you definetly can drive. There is plenty of parking on the dirt at the top of the hill before you enter the descent to the lake. There is a 10pm curfew and it is a 0 tolerance of noise pollution after curfew. The ranger strictly enforces this rule as she sleeps in a camper right in the heart of the campsite.
Key Pointers:
1. Summer is hotter than hades up in here and with little shade it can be miserable.
2. Select campsite as far away from the Ranger’s Camper as possible because she will scold you like she is your momma if she hears any noise pollution from your site past 10pm (this happened to us but in our defense we were not the only site noisy). I assume since we were the closeset to her camper we got the but of the lashing… your welcome other drunk campers!
3. Get there early to pick a good campsite. Alot of the terrain is not leveled so if you don’t get there early enough you will get stuck with no shade and sleeping on an incline of the hill.
5. There is a water spicket in the middle of the campgrounds but you are not allowed to use the spicket to wash anything. ie…pots, pans, feet ANYTHING. must collect water in container and bring it back to your campsite and then do your business.
6. Wofford is about a 5 – 10 minute drive away which has fast foods and Vons and other commmerical stores to provide for all your comfort and needs.
7. TIght living quarters… all the sites are closely packed so if your are looking for a more peaceful time. this is not the place you can hear EVERYTHING.
8. Activities: Lake, River, Hike, River Rafting
so all in all, A clean site to have some good wholesome family fun and watch shooting stars well into the night!

I came here a year ago I love this place the host we’re really kind, bath room clean. But this year was a really bad experience, the bath room really dirty, around the camp site was smell like a sewage. The host really rude. I will never go to this camp site again. Not recommend.

I camped here with a group of 11 people over Memorial Day weekend. When we made the reservation online, we couldn’t select campsites, as it’s all first come, first served, with a check in time of 2pm. We decided to get there around noon to get in line for sites, and when we got there, we were told by the camp host that we could choose our sites right then — good thing we were there early! Most campsites had already been taken by people who’d gotten there earlier in the day. So much for a 2pm check in time! Definitely go early.
My group chose spots 69 and 70, which are at the back of the campground and kind of secluded from the rest of the sites. They’re up on a little hill, away from the highway, and not right next to anyone else. The bathroom is really close to those spots, but we couldn’t smell them at all (thank goodness). There’s a shower in each bathroom, and flush toilets. The camp host kept them pretty clean, too — she checked them every couple hours.
The campground is pretty dry, with pine trees here and there, and lots of giant rocks. We had a hard time staking our tents because of all the rock under the dirt. There isn’t much shade, so we were grateful to have brought a canopy to set up to keep our food out of the sun. We were able to fit 5 tents and a canopy in our two campsites, and we could have easily fit a couple more had we needed to, but some of the other campsites looked tiny and hilly. We definitely lucked out.
This is definitely not a quiet campground on a holiday weekend, so don’t expect to sit around and hear birds chirping and such. Be prepared to hear music and chatter from other sites, even after quiet time. The camp hosts didn’t seem to care that people were so loud. That said, the camp hosts were really nice. If you plan to park two cars at one camp site, be prepared to pay $ 5 a night for the extra car, despite the reservation website telling you that two cars are included in the price. The camp host said the website is wrong and she can’t get anyone to change it. Oh well.
This campground is only about a 10 minute drive from downtown Woffard Heights, which has a Vons, gas, and some restaurants. It’s also right across the highway from Lake Isabella. My group and I drove down the highway a little and found our own private lake spot to hang out in, which was awesome. There was some trash on the beach, but the lake seemed clean, though very rocky — bring water shoes!

Excellent experience. Greeted kindly by the camp host as we entered. Had the freedom to choose any site available. There are some great locations here all with varying terrain and surroundings. We chose 2 site a little farther back in the site to stay secluded. This camp is also just a quick 10 min walk to the lake.
Decent bathrooms with coin operated showers (with hot water!). There are 3 bathrooms located around the campgrounds.
The grounds are only 10 min away from downtown Wofford Heights and Kernville.
Great experience and will definitely go back again!

So, I haven’t been here in a long time, but what I remember is this place was pretty dry. We went with a group of about 25 people and the campsites were decent size, but not huge.
The lake was full of sticks pointing up, so it was a little dangerous. We drove by here another year to check it out again and it must have been when there was a huge drought. We saw someone jet skiing and the water coming out of the jet ski was algae green. Ewwwhhh!
We decided this was just not the place for us to camp anymore. Perhaps the water has cleared up and it’s nicer now, but from when we last came… it was pretty nasty.

We definitely lucked out when we decided to camp here for memorial day weekend. Hungry Gulch turned out to be one of the best camp sites that we have ever been too. It smelled amazing and it was clean. We got the most incredible site, secluded from all other campers. It was higher then the other sites, which gave us breath taking views and our site seemed larger than most of other sites. If you walk closer towards the entrace of the park, you can find a fantastic view of Lake Isabella.
I posted 7 Pictures of hungry gulch, including our site, views from our site, views of lake isabella, and the kern river
The bathrooms were decent, but there always seemed to be crowds of girls waiting in line to take showers; at least 9 girls standing there every single time I went to the bathroom, which was annoying. There were HUGE spiders in the corners of the stalls, but the rangers came by and killed them each day, which was good.
The sites themselves were great. There were scattered pine trees all over, flat surfaces, with great views of the mountains, and a ton of blue jays.
Overall our experience was excellent. We will be coming back for sure.
Best of all the Kern river was close by, and we were able to hike to some amazing spots and cool off in the water.

I went camping here over the 4^th of July weekend. Although the campsites were small, we were able to squeeze 15 people on two sites (the maximum is 6 people per site, but the campground patrol never came around and counted.) However, the campground patrol did come around and make sure that each additional car (2 cars allowed per site but only one is included in the reservation) was paid for ($ 5 each per night). Note: when the reservation was made I was told that two cars were allowed per site; however, I was not told that only one car was included in the reservation and that a $ 5 per extra car per night would be charged. They were very sneaky!
We ended up having 6 cars and had to park the extra cars off site AT OUR OWN RISK. Nothing happened to our cars but parking off site in the middle of nowhere is a little sketchy.
So, the actual sites were clean and included one BBQ pit. However, the bathrooms were absolutely disgusting! Smelly and dirty! The shower (yes one shower only!) was even worse! In my opinion, the bathroom needed to be hosed down with undiluted bleach! OK, we were camping, and didn’t have to use a port-​a-​potty, but the bathrooms could have been maintained a bit better.
There was a 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM quite time rule (we were told it was a no tolerance rule); however, no one patrolled the campsite, and we were able to be as loud as we wanted into the early morning hours. That was nice!
I would come back here to camp because the overall experience was positive but the bathrooms can use a makeover!