Planned Activities

Bakersfield River Run RV Park

63 RV Sites

Bakersfield River Run RV Park in Bakersfield, California, offers 63 full-hookup RV sites along the Kern River, with 20, 30, and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 80 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. Six categories publish their lengths directly — back-ins at 50 feet, pull-throughs at 60, and river view back-ins at 60 — with a pool, fitness center, and clubhouse on site. Sixty-three sites span standard back-ins, 50-foot back-ins, pull-throughs, 60-foot pull-throughs, river view back-ins, and 60-foot river view back-ins, all carrying water, sewer, and electric on 20, 30, and 50-amp with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 80 feet. Publishing length by category is genuinely useful — you know what fits before you book. A general store, laundry, propane fills and exchange, dump station, restrooms, and showers handle the practical side. An outdoor pool anchors the warm months, with a fitness center, clubhouse, and recreation center open year-round. The Kern River runs alongside the property, and the river view categories are worth requesting. Pets are welcome. Bakersfield sits at the intersection of Highway 99 and Rosedale Highway in Kern County, the southern anchor of the San Joaquin Valley. That places the park at the junction of the Central Valley's I-5 and Highway 99 corridors and the mountain routes toward Sequoia National Park and the southern Sierra Nevada — practical access that road trippers, snowbirds, and weekend travelers all use. The park operates year-round. Winter snowbird traffic and summer highway travel both drive demand — reserve ahead for holiday weekends.

from $56 $49/night

Lake Piru Recreation Area

228 RV Sites

Lake Piru Recreation Area in Piru, California, offers 228 RV sites on a 1,200-acre reservoir in Ventura County, with 30 and 50-amp service, ADA-accessible sites, and rigs accepted to 55 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. Full-hookup, electric-only, and no-hookup back-in categories serve every budget, with a marina and boat rentals on site. Two hundred twenty-eight back-in sites span full-hookup, electric-only, and no-hookup configurations, carrying water, sewer, and electric where noted on 30 and 50-amp, sized to 55 feet, with fire pits, picnic tables, and site WiFi. Accessible sites are available. The tiering by hookup level is genuinely useful — self-contained rigs can take a no-hookup site at a lower rate. A general store, laundry, dump station, restrooms, showers, and firewood handle the practical side. The reservoir carries the recreation. A marina and boat rentals put guests on the water, with boating, water sports, canoeing, kayaking, swimming, and fishing all running from the property. A disc golf course, walking trails, hiking, volleyball, basketball, horseshoes, a playground, and a dog park fill the grounds, with planned activities through the season. Pets are welcome. Lake Piru sits where the Santa Felicia Dam impounds Piru Creek in the Topatopa Mountains, surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and Los Padres National Forest — one of Southern California's most scenic accessible mountain lakes, roughly 60 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Summer draws heavy demand from the LA metro. Reserve well ahead for warm-weather weekends.

from $32/night

Grey Squirrel Resorts

19 Cottages

Grey Squirrel Resort in Fawnskin, California, has welcomed families, couples, and group retreats since the 1950s, bringing more than seven decades of mountain hospitality to a collection of 19 private cabins spread across three wooded acres on the quiet north shore of Big Bear Lake. Tucked in the small mountain community of Fawnskin—across the lake from the busier Big Bear Lake resort corridor—the resort provides an intimate and unhurried alternative to the high-traffic south shore lodging scene, giving guests direct access to San Bernardino County's premier mountain resort while preserving the peaceful forest character that defines the north shore experience. The 19 private cabins accommodate a range of group sizes and comfort preferences, offering more privacy and enclosed space than hotel rooms while maintaining the forest-immersed setting that draws visitors to Big Bear Lake in every season. On-site amenities include a pond, spa, walking trails, and wedding venue capabilities that make the property versatile for romantic retreats, family reunions, and celebration events alongside standard vacation stays. Pet-friendly policies, a general store, and Wi-Fi support extended stays, while the resort's access to golf, hiking, and mountain biking from the property ensures guests can build active itineraries without driving across the lake to the south shore infrastructure. The Fawnskin area's forest setting—ponderosa pine, white fir, and black oak woodland at approximately 7,000 feet elevation in the San Bernardino Mountains—provides a true mountain environment that contrasts sharply with the Southern California coast and desert communities that send the majority of Big Bear's visitors up the mountain. The north shore's relative quiet and the absence of the commercial density found on the south shore give Fawnskin an off-the-beaten-path character that has attracted loyal repeat guests to properties like Grey Squirrel for generations. Big Bear Mountain Resort, accessible via the south shore road around the lake, offers skiing and snowboarding in winter alongside mountain biking and lift-accessed hiking in summer, making the surrounding mountain landscape a legitimate four-season outdoor recreation destination. Big Bear Lake itself provides boating, fishing for trout and bass, kayaking, and paddleboarding from multiple marinas and launch points, and the PCT-adjacent trail system of the San Gorgonio Wilderness to the south provides backcountry hiking access to some of Southern California's highest and most dramatic mountain terrain. The Moonridge Animal Park and the Baldwin Lake Ecological Reserve provide additional nature-focused excursions in the immediate area. Grey Squirrel Resort operates year-round in Big Bear Lake's four-season mountain climate, with winter skiing season from December through March and summer's lake and mountain recreation driving the two peak demand periods. Fall's aspen and black oak color in the surrounding San Bernardino National Forest creates a third visitation surge in October, when the mountain's foliage rivals the more celebrated deciduous displays of the eastern United States. Cabin reservations for winter ski weekends and summer holidays fill months in advance, and the resort's intimate 19-cabin scale means early booking is essential for any stay during Big Bear's peak windows.

from $75/night

Boulder Creek RV Resort

68 RV Sites, 3 Cabins

Boulder Creek RV Resort in Lone Pine, California, offers 68 full-hookup RV sites and three cabins at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, with 30 and 50-amp service, cable TV, ADA-accessible sites, and rigs accepted to 60 feet. Back-in and pull-through 30/50-amp categories join a pool, hot tub, spa, recreation center, and library beneath Mount Whitney. Sixty-eight sites run in back-in 30/50-amp and pull-thru 30/50-amp categories, both carrying water, sewer, and electric with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 60 feet, with fire pits and picnic tables. Accessible sites are available. Three cabins round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills, dump station, restrooms, showers, and RV storage handle the practical side. An outdoor pool and hot tub, sauna, and spa anchor the property, with a recreation center, clubhouse, library, playground, dog park, and walking trails filling the grounds. A lake and creek support fishing, hiking runs in every direction, and planned activities run through the season. Pets are welcome. The setting is among the most visually spectacular of any campground in California. Mount Whitney rises to 14,505 feet — the highest peak in the contiguous United States — directly above the Alabama Hills, whose rounded granite formations have served as the backdrop for hundreds of films. Lone Pine sits in the Owens Valley between the Sierra's eastern escarpment and the White Mountains, with Death Valley to the east. Spring and fall are most comfortable in the Owens Valley, with summer bringing Whitney permit-holders and hikers. Reserve well ahead for the climbing season.

from $45/night

Golden Village Palms Resort

Golden Village Palms Resort in Hemet, California, is one of the largest RV resorts in the state — a 55-plus destination in Riverside County's Diamond Valley with full-hookup sites, a spa, fitness center, mini-golf, and pickleball courts behind a gated entrance, open all year. Personal mailboxes and RV storage support the long-stay residents who fill it through the winter. Full-hookup sites serve the resort's largely seasonal population, with laundry, RV storage, personal mailboxes, restrooms, and showers handling the practical side, plus WiFi and recycling throughout. Check-in for RV sites is 1:00pm with check-out at 12:00pm; early arrivals and late departures may be available for a nominal fee, and cottage check-in times differ — confirm when booking. The amenity roster is the reason people come. An outdoor pool and spa anchor daily recreation, with a fitness center, clubhouse, craft room, and game room for the social calendar. Pickleball, bocce ball, shuffleboard, horseshoes, volleyball, billiards, corn hole, and sports courts fill the competitive side, with mini-golf and a dog park besides. On-site dining covers meals, live music and planned activities run through the season, and the resort also serves as a wedding venue. A casino, hiking, wine tasting, and hot air ballooning are all nearby. Pets are welcome. Hemet sits in the Diamond Valley between the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains, in the inland reach of Southern California — warm dry summers, mild winters, and a dramatic mountain backdrop, roughly 30 miles west of the Palm Springs resort corridor across the San Jacinto Fault. Winter is decisively the season. Book well ahead for January through March.

from $64/night

Sun Outdoors Santa Barbara

79 RV Sites, 24 Tent Sites

In Goleta, California—eight miles west of downtown Santa Barbara on the Santa Barbara Channel coast where the Santa Ynez Mountains' chaparral ridges descend to the Pacific and the Channel Islands National Park's offshore silhouettes anchor the ocean horizon in one of the most visually spectacular coastal settings in California—Sun Outdoors Santa Barbara provides 79 full hookup RV sites on concrete pads, 24 tent sites, a heated pool and spa, an on-site llama and goat farm, docent-led nature trail hikes, and the Santa Barbara wine country and downtown proximity that makes the campground a genuine base for California coastal living rather than a highway overnight stop. The llamas, the docent nature hikes, and the on-site market stocked with craft beer and local wine are the three details that reveal a property designed for a specific and destination-minded guest population. Seventy-nine full hookup RV sites on concrete pads with 30 and 50-amp electric, water, sewer, cable television, and WiFi connections, along with fire pits and picnic tables at every site, constitute the RV infrastructure. Spacious pull-through sites accommodate large motorhomes without the lateral precision that back-in sites impose. Twenty-four tent sites on leveled pads with Adirondack chairs and fire pits provide the tent camping option in the Santa Barbara coastal environment. A heated pool and spa serve the year-round California coastal camping season's aquatic recreation needs across months when an unheated pool would be impractical. A dog park, playground, laundry facilities, and lawn games round out the family recreation amenities. The on-site market—stocked with camping gear, craft beer, and local Santa Barbara County wine—reflects the property's specifically California wine-country orientation and eliminates the drive to a Goleta grocery or wine shop for guests who want to stock the campsite directly. Seasonal outdoor movie nights on the lawn extend the evening programming calendar with the ambient California coastal setting that a movie under the Santa Barbara stars specifically capitalizes on. The on-site llama and goat farm occupies the intersection of agricultural heritage and novelty animal interaction that has proven consistently popular in the California agri-tourism market—functioning not as a theme park attraction but as a working farm adjacent to the campground whose animals are accessible as a practical feature of the property's 55-acre operation. Docent-led nature trail hikes through the campground's natural areas provide the educational natural history programming that the Santa Ynez Mountain foothills' chaparral and oak woodland ecology makes genuinely interesting for the nature-engaged visitor. Downtown Santa Barbara—eight miles east—provides California's most intact Spanish Colonial Revival architectural heritage in the commercial and civic buildings that were rebuilt in the 1920s after a 1925 earthquake destroyed most of the original downtown, creating the stylistic coherence that no amount of planning oversight can produce in a city that wasn't flattened at a moment of strong aesthetic consensus. The Santa Barbara wine country in the Santa Ynez and Santa Maria Valleys, accessible from Goleta via the San Marcos Pass or Highway 101, produces the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that Alexander Payne's film Sideways made internationally famous from 2004 forward. Sun Outdoors Santa Barbara is open year-round in the Santa Barbara coastal climate that makes year-round camping genuinely viable. The Mediterranean climate—mild winters, warm but not extreme summers, and the marine influence that keeps temperatures moderated across all seasons—makes every month a reasonable time to visit. Reserve early for summer weekends and the Santa Barbara wine harvest season in September, visit the llamas before the pool opens, and let the Channel Islands' offshore silhouettes on a clear morning earn what the California coast looks like when it's not in the fog.

from $75/night

Joshua Tree Lake RV & Campground

Joshua Tree Lake RV Campground in Joshua Tree, California, provides a lakeside and desert camping experience at the gateway to Joshua Tree National Park—the 800,000-acre California desert preserve where the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts converge and the iconic twisted Joshua trees create the alien landscape that has made this park one of the most photographed national parks in the American West. The campground's pond and lake, wedding venue, live music programming, and exceptional dark-sky stargazing access distinguish it from the park's own developed campgrounds, providing resort-amenity camping with the Joshua Tree character—moonlit boulder piles, star-filled desert skies, and the haunting silhouettes of Yucca brevifolia in the desert night—that defines the high-desert camping experience at the edge of one of California's most beloved national parks. The campground's facility reflects the desert environment and destination event character: a private lake and pond for fishing and desert water recreation, planned activities and live music and entertainment programming that takes advantage of the dramatic desert landscape setting, a wedding venue for celebrations in the Joshua Tree destination event market, bird and wildlife watching in the desert tortoise and roadrunner habitat, a general store, pavilion, showers, bathrooms, dump station, pet-friendly policies, Wi-Fi, and mountain and desert views that frame every camping site with the park scenery that brought guests to Joshua Tree in the first place. Stargazing events and the campground's exceptional night-sky access provide the evening programming that no facilities can improve upon in this dark-sky desert. Joshua Tree National Park's Wonderland of Rocks—a concentration of massive rounded granite monoliths that rose from magma intrusions 100 million years ago and were exposed by erosion to create the boulder-pile landscape that defines the park's distinctive visual character—contains over 8,000 documented rock climbing routes that have made Joshua Tree the most visited and most iconic rock climbing destination in North America. The Skull Rock Nature Trail, Keys View's panoramic Coachella Valley overlook, and the Cottonwood Spring oasis in the Sonoran Desert section provide the representative national park experiences accessible on day hikes from the campground's Joshua Tree gateway position. The town of Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms, and the High Desert arts and culture community that has grown around the national park's western gateway have developed a distinctive creative culture of galleries, music venues, and the annual Joshua Tree Music Festival that reflect the desert landscape's effect on artistic practice in the creative community that has colonized the Morongo Valley's high desert terrain. The Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum in Joshua Tree—a free outdoor sculpture garden of assemblage art created by Purifoy from the debris of the 1965 Watts Riots—is one of the most significant and unusual outdoor art installations in California. Joshua Tree Lake RV Campground operates year-round in the high Mojave Desert's four-season climate, with the fall and spring seasons from October through April delivering the most comfortable desert temperatures for hiking, rock climbing, and boulder exploration in Joshua Tree National Park—the summer months above 100 degrees Fahrenheit make the park's sun-exposed terrain genuinely dangerous for unprepared hikers in the heat of the day, while the mild winter nights create extraordinary stargazing conditions when the desert air's low humidity and the campground's minimal light pollution combine with the Milky Way's winter arc over the park's boulder silhouettes. The spring wildflower season in February and March after winter rains creates the desert bloom that brings maximum visitor volume to Joshua Tree.

from $16 $14/night

Cathedral Palms RV Resort

62 RV Sites, 1 Onsite RV/Trailer, 1 Apartment

Cathedral Palms RV Resort in Cathedral City, California, offers 62 full-hookup RV sites and an apartment with 30 and 50-amp service and rigs accepted to 55 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout, with EV charging on site. Deluxe and water-and-electric back-ins join the Happy Camper travel trailer rental, with a pool, hot tub, and pickleball courts. Sixty-two back-in sites run in water-and-electric and deluxe full-hookup categories carrying 30 and 50-amp, sized to 55 feet, with site WiFi. EV charging is available — still uncommon at RV resorts and increasingly decisive for guests towing with an electric vehicle. The Happy Camper travel trailer rental and an apartment serve guests without a rig, with check-in for rental units at 3:00pm. A laundry, propane fills, dump station, RV storage, bike rentals, restrooms, and showers handle the practical side. An outdoor pool and hot tub and sauna anchor the property, with a clubhouse, community fire pit, and dog park besides. Pickleball, bocce ball, basketball, billiards, ping pong, and corn hole fill the competitive calendar, with biking from the property, planned activities through the season, and a golf course and national park nearby. Pets are welcome. Cathedral City sits between Palm Springs and Palm Desert in the Coachella Valley, which puts the region's golf courses, spa culture, national park access, and mid-century modern architecture all within easy reach. Winter is decisively the season in the desert. Book well ahead for January through March.

from $65/night

Emerald Desert RV Resort

97 RV Sites

Emerald Desert RV Resort in Palm Desert, California, offers 97 full-hookup back-in RV sites across 33 acres with 30 and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 56 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout, open all year behind a gated entrance. Luxury, elite, premium, and deluxe categories join a pool, hot tub, spa, fitness center, and disc golf course. Ninety-seven back-in sites run in deluxe, premium, elite, and luxury categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric on 30 and 50-amp with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 56 feet. The four-tier structure gives real budget range within a single resort. A laundry, propane fills and exchange, restrooms, showers, RV storage, and boat storage handle the practical side. An outdoor pool, hot tub, sauna, and spa anchor the property, with a fitness center, clubhouse, craft room, pavilion, and disc golf course besides. Tennis, pickleball, bocce ball, billiards, ping pong, and horseshoes fill the courts, with a dog park and live music through the season. The resort is LGBTIQA+ friendly and operates as a wedding venue. Championship golf, concert venues, shopping, dining, wine and beer tasting, and Joshua Tree National Park are all nearby. Pets are welcome. The Coachella Valley's winter climate is the entire proposition — reliably sunny, warm, and dry from November through April when much of the country is frozen. Winter is decisively the season. January through March fills with snowbirds and festival traffic. Book well ahead, with far easier availability through the hot summer months.

from $68/night

Paradise by the Sea Beach RV Resort

90 RV Sites

Paradise by the Sea Beach RV Resort in Oceanside, California, offers 90 full-hookup RV sites with 30 and 50-amp service, cable TV, ADA-accessible sites, and rigs accepted to 60 feet, behind a gated entrance on the coast. This is an adults-only resort, with named site categories including Island Back-In, Bamboo Hillside, The Jetty, and Motorcoach Pull-Thru. Ninety sites span group, island back-in, motorcoach pull-through, premium back-in Bamboo Hillside, premium back-in Beach Preferred, and The Jetty categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric on 30 and 50-amp with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 60 feet, with picnic tables and BBQ pits. Accessible sites are available. Naming categories by position rather than tier makes choosing genuinely easier. A general store, laundry, propane exchange, restrooms, showers, personal mailboxes, and recycling handle the practical side. Note the adults-only policy before booking. An outdoor pool and hot tub and sauna anchor the property, with mini-golf, a game room, arcade, recreation center, clubhouse, billiards, shuffleboard, ping pong, and corn hole besides. A beach, walking trails, community fire pit, dog park, and playground fill the grounds, with surfing, swimming, fishing, hiking, and biking from the area and live music through the season. Pets are welcome. Oceanside sits 90 miles north of Los Angeles with direct I-5 and CA-78 access. The pier, Oceanside Harbor whale watching, the California Surf Museum, and Carlsbad and Encinitas are all close. Summer is peak on the Southern California coast. Reserve well ahead.

from $80/night

Shadow Hills RV Resort

95 RV Sites, 19 Tent Sites

Shadow Hills RV Resort in Indio, California, offers 95 paved full-hookup back-in RV sites and 19 tent sites in the Coachella Valley, with 30 and 50-amp service, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 60 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout. A spa, hot tub, fitness center, business center, and library sit behind a gated entrance. Ninety-five paved back-in sites carry water, sewer, and electric on 30 and 50-amp with cable TV, sized to 60 feet. Paved sites hold up better than gravel through a desert season and make setup cleaner. Nineteen tent sites and cabins round out the accommodations. Laundry, restrooms, showers, and a snack bar handle the practical side, with a gated entrance controlling access. The amenity set is built for a long winter stay. An outdoor pool, hot tub, sauna, and spa cover daily recreation, with a fitness center, clubhouse, game room, craft room, and library for the rest. A business center serves guests working remotely, and a pond, walking trails, community fire pit, dog park, and horseshoes fill the grounds. Planned activities run through the season. Pets are welcome. Indio sits at the center of the Coachella Valley's date palm agricultural belt and hosts two of the world's most attended music festivals. Palm Springs' cosmopolitan appeal and Joshua Tree National Park's high desert are both within easy reach, and the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and Art Museum are close. Winter is decisively the season, and April festival weeks tighten the entire valley. Book well ahead for both.

from $45/night

Sun Outdoors Central Coast Wine Country

156 RV Sites, 26 Cottages

Sun Outdoors Central Coast Wine Country in Paso Robles, California, offers 156 RV sites and 26 cottages with 20, 30, and 50-amp full hookups, cable TV, and rigs accepted to 60 feet on a big-rig-friendly layout, open all year. Concrete-with-grass and granite-with-patio premium categories join deluxe, standard, and group sites in the heart of the Central Coast wine region. One hundred fifty-six sites span standard, deluxe back-in, group back-in, premium back-in concrete with grass, and premium back-in granite with concrete patio categories, all carrying water, sewer, and electric with cable TV and site WiFi, sized to 60 feet, with picnic tables and BBQ pits. Specifying the surface treatment by category is unusually transparent. Twenty-six cottages round out the lodging. A general store, laundry, propane fills and exchange, restrooms, and showers handle the practical side. The property was formerly Wine Country RV Resort. An outdoor pool and hot tub and sauna anchor the property, with a fitness center, clubhouse, craft room, bar, and community fire pit besides. Corn hole, biking, a playground, and a dog park fill the grounds, with live music and planned activities through the season. Wine tasting, hot air ballooning, and a water park are all nearby. Pets are welcome. Paso Robles has grown into one of California's premier wine regions over two decades, and the resort sits among the tasting rooms and rolling vineyards. Harvest season and summer drive demand. Reserve well ahead.

from $49/night