Keyesville South Recreation Site

This was my first time tent camping so what a learning curve. Initially found the site through a the allstays app. Checked google maps for paved roads and thought I would be safe in my Prius sedan. Missed it the first time and turned on Keyesville rd. I had seen there’s sites on that side. Soon found out my car wasn’t going to make it too far. Left that area and found this site from the main road. The first few hundred feet was downhill an unpaved hard sandy road. Assuming because there was lots of rain this year, there were ditches which meant you had to continuously swivel your wheels to stay on flatter land, some parts were impossible to avoid dipping your whole car slowly in and out of the ditch. It took about a good 5-7 minutes, ok 10, due to my inexperience while 4WD vehicles were doing it in 1-2 minutes.
Ok so once you get down the hill there is a wide leveled area with dumpster trash cans that were well maintained. There was a visible driving path to the left and right. I saw a couple of set ups to my left, and since I like complete isolation, I drove to the right. Single lane dirt road was level yet bumpy. Area was completely empty and I noticed some spots had fire rings made and some didn’t. I first chose was I thought would be a good spot at the end of the trail/road and tried to back in so I would be facing the “road.” Big mistake. See I saw tire prints, so I assumed…..Anyway I had backed in too far right into sand. If the hill wasn’t enough, I learned quickly the difference between 2WD and 4WD. After desperately moving forward and backwards for about 30, I reluctantly admitted I was stuck in a sad pit. This is also where I found out AAA won’t cover a tow if it’s ‘off-road.’
Beyond this disastrous beginning to my first tent camping trip. The site was beautiful! There was some sort of animal paw prints in my site, but I saw nothing. I did hear coyotes in the night. I only did short hikes along the river. It was colder than I thought it would be so there was that learning curve as well. Ended up getting a neighbor that partied but as a solo traveler, I don’t mind noise. There was lots of shade but where I was, the trees weren’t on level ground or close enough to my tent, so I couldn’t use them to hang my shower or an overhead tarp. I have Boost Mobile and I had enough service to stream music but not really Netflix. Download before you go. Area was pretty clean, only found a few pieces of trash like bottle caps or forgotten stakes, but this was earlier in the year. Loved this site and definitely want to go again, but unsure if I’ll risk the Prius again.

I camped “up top” from the river at a pull through. It’s a steep hill down but beautiful. Nobody was down below until my last day someone drove down to take their dog for a swim. Some sites are a little rough getting in and not recommended for an RV. Road is sandy in places as you go further back. I’m new at this, so leveling was a challenge and I’m still “off kilter” as I don’t have enough leveling blocks but I’m good enough for me in my 24’ RV. Be sure to have enough block as it can be challenging.
Walked river every day and biked road every other day just to check it out. There is a bit of traffic where I am and even though the road goes right beside me some still drive through the pull through right beside me. But it is what it is. I mostly don’t notice anything on the road as the river drowns almost everything out. People come here to fish and parked behind me nearer the entrance to the drive thru but were no big deal.
Yes it does looks like some people might be living here as others said but the area was clean. Nobody bothered me.
I had service with AT&T and Verizon here. 2 bars LTE with AT&T. 3-4 with Verizon 4g/LTE hotspot. Was able to work no problem with either one. Sorry don’t know up and down speeds.
Got windy at times and a little dust blew through. Breeze was nice.
Overall a beautiful river and a beautiful spot to camp.

We stayed here for a week while boondocking. It is literally minutes away from Kern ville or Lake Isabella.
We entered the area at this GPS location and had great luck with our sites, neighbors and views. (35.640664, -118.484248)

This area is free, there was a trash bin and a pit toilet at the entrance. There are several pullouts along the paved road which made for an easy drive to find a campsite. People seem to gather closer to the pit toilets and some may be a little more permanent than others but we had no problem with anyone.

Our site was right off the paved road and had no issues. It was quiet and we were surrounded by trees. There are cows roaming the area but none bothered us. Our fire pit had a trash bag in it, which is too bad because people were too lazy to just dump their bag at the entrance… but we did it for them. Please clean up after yourself to keep these places open and FREE to the public.

Internet was good, we were able to make video calls for our jobs.
We dumped, filled and did laundry at the Haven RV Park, 5-10min from this location. It was very convenient.

Absolutely beautiful place. It’s too bad the experience is clouded by obnoxious people who seem to be living there full time. Multiple groups set up with generators who use them all night long to power their music. The “restrooms” are disgusting vault toilets that have not been cleaned in a very long time, there’s graffiti on the walls, no toilet paper, and only one out of 3 doors had a lock. While waiting for my brother outside of the restroom, a cracked out woman, probably homeless, got mad that I was standing too close to her broke-down, beat up car. The ground throughout the area is littered with cigarette butts, broken glass bottles, nails, and fire ants.

This is a great spot for truck campers, tent campers and vans, however, there are limited sites for RV's. The one we were in was fantastic once we got in, though the road was narrow, so backing into it was a bit of a challenge. I would recommend scouting before you taking your RV down the road, because depending on which road you choose, you might not be able to turn around.

My favorite thing about this location is the roaring river. Every night we went to bed with our windows open and the sound of the river put us to sleep.

Verizon - DOWNLOAD: 6.29 Mbps, UPLOAD: 3.8 Mbps
AT&T - DOWNLOAD: 5.20 Mbps, UPLOAD: 2.26 Mbps
T-Mobile - DOWNLOAD: 0.61 Mbps, UPLOAD: 7.74 Mbps