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From the USFS website: Campfire permits are REQUIRED Campfire permits are required for campfires, barbeques, and camp stoves. Permits are available at your local Ranger Station or online at preventwildfireca.org Located on the southern end of Lake Isabella off Highway 178 near the town of Lake Isabella, this facility offers flush toilets, drinking water, trash service, a dump station and some campsites with stoves and picnic tables above the high water mark. Below the high-water mark, visitors can drive their vehicles to the shoreline and camp at the water’s edge. Below the high-water mark portable toilets and trash receptacles are provided for visitor convenience during the summer. The Forest Service’s Southern Sierra Passes are accepted at this site, as well as the interagency Annual, Senior, Access, Volunteer, and Military Passes. The Southern Sierra Pass can be purchased at Golden State Surplus in Lake Isabella, James Sierra Gateway Market in South Lake, and local Forest Service offices or online. Campfire permits are required for campfires, barbeques, and camp stoves. Permits are available at your local Ranger Station or online at preventwildfireca.org For Kern River Ranger District recreation information, please call 760-376-3781.
From Kernville, go south on County Road 571, and west on CA 178.
GREAT PLACE, BUT PLEASE READ WARNING AT BOTTOM OF THIS REVIEW.
We often camp here in the summer and it is a great place, if you don't mind a slightly harsh environment.
We have a trailer and 2 Yamaha Wave Runners.
It is very hot (90s and 100s)and dry, which is great for swimming, jet skis, water skiing, boating and fishing.
In the afternoons, it gets very windy, and is good for windsurfing and kite surfing.
If you like to get wet, it is a perfect place.
You can park you RV anywhere on the sand near the water, where there is space, and it is awesome.
You are surrounded by beautiful mountains.
We are water people, so we love it.
If you don't like to go in the water, it is not the place for you.
Without going in the water to cool off frequently, it would be too hot and uncomfortable in the summer months.
The air is still in the mornings, but almost every afternoon there are super strong wind gusts.
Make sure you tie down anything you don't want to blow away, or you will be chasing your things down the beach. We've seen people's stuff fly many times.
WARNING FOR BOATERS, AND JET SKIS (PWC's)
The lake water levels drastically change throughout the year.
In the summer, the water level goes down slowly each day. Do not boat or jet ski too close to the dam. You will see markers there, but way out past the dam and those markers, (probably about a 100 feet further from the dam, and the markers) there is an unmarked steel under water gate/grate.
When we camped there, the end of this past July, this steel grate was just slightly under the water level and not visible at all.
IT IS NOT MARKED!
My husband was riding our PWC back to our campsite, thinking he was plenty far enough from the dam and markers, which he was, not knowing there was a grate under the water, a good distance from the dam and those markers.
He hit it going about 25 mph, which put a huge gouge in the bottom of the hull of our PWC. It stopped him dead in the water, he teetered on it, and then fell off. He then rode back to shore.
Luckily he wasn't going faster, or he could have been seriously hurt or even killed.
We reported this to the rangers, but were told that the lake and dam are run by Edison, and they would notify Edison about what happened.
We held our breath every time, we saw an unsuspecting boater, or jet skier near that area.
We saw a speed boat and a water skier come within a foot or two from it.
It is too far out, for them to hear you from the shore, if you yell to try and warn them.
We warned people on land camping near us, but people cruise the lake from all over, so it is not possible to warn everyone. .
A few days later, the water level went down enough so that you could now see the grate poking above the water, and it was no longer as dangerous, because it was no longer hidden.
It IS hidden during parts of the year, and should be marked. I hope it doesn't take someone getting killed by it, before Edison does something about this. They really need to put a buoy or markers of some sort there!
If the lake water level is really high, or really low, it is not a problem. But, it is a SERIOUS DANGER when it is only slightly covered and hidden by water.
Bakersfield's "beach." It literally looks and feels like a beach (I grew up in a beach town). Same beach sand, fire pits and the water even makes small waves.
This place is a nice place to dry camp (portapotties "due to Covid") and you can do so for 14 days. There are pleanty of spaces, and it's nice and quiet during the week. The weekend is loud and the cops were called twice, however they were respectful and left with out bothering anyone who wasn't involved.
Only real complaint other than the bathrooms being MORE unsanitary thanks to Covid, I went into the water with my clothes (forgot bathingsuit) and it took 3 washes to get the HORRIBLE smell out.
We will be back!
Aux Dam campground is now managed by the Koncessionaires.
America the Beautiful forest services annual passes no longer accepted here. $12 per night for dry camp. Discount for seniors and disabled.
Very nice place to park your trailer and camp for the weekend. No hookups, has a few water spigots, and a gray and black water dump by the boat launch area. Bring your generator.
At night, we got to see the starlight satellite fleet up in the sky.
