Fort Tejon State Historic Park — Attraction in Arvin

‘Tis a beautiful and old Historic State Park, indeed! We came here upon the recommendation of the hotel staff we stayed in Lebec. This was life “ once upon a time in the West”. Many interesting facts of this former US Army Outpost with a lovely view of San Emigdio and Tehachapi Mountains along I-5 in Kern County. The historical park is open to visitors, just park and get in, no one will collect entrance fee but do it yourself for a minimum of $3/adult and $1 for child and just put the money in the slot, that simple. No people around, no visitors but you will find many picnic tables around and lots of trees aside from a lovely scenery of gorgeous mountains! A big break on the Grapevine from our Disneyland trip! We explored the old buildings and barracks and found the Museums so interesting. It has exhibits of Dragoon’s life and their uniforms and gadgets, and the original barracks are still there where the soldiers slept. It brings a lot of nostalgia after the outbreak of American Civil War. Most of the buildings were restored though. This is indeed a very interesting piece of California history...

This is a pretty nice park. I've driven by this park a couple of dozen times and finally decided to stop. It was easy off and easy on the freeway. Parking was adequate. Short walk into the front gate. There are restrooms with flush toilets and running water. There's a ranger room and a small Museum up front.

The rest of the park consists of a dozen or so original and some rebuilt Army buildings. We saw smoke coming out of the blacksmith shop and had a good talk with the volunteer blacksmith who was helpful with historical information.

We walked around for a couple of hours looking into the different rooms. One room has the old weapons displayed another room was the bunkhouse another building was a kitchen. There was even a chicken coop with real live chickens.

They have special events which consists of reenactments and volunteers staffing the different buildings such as the blacksmith, Carpenter, and brick making.

There is a campground with hookups. Although I'm not this kind of camper so I'm not sure how to comment the quality of...

Fort Tejon State Historic Park is a nice smaller park to visit if traveling on Hwy 5. The park is located right off of the freeway and is easily accessible and is great as a pit stop before going into the valley or continuing towards LA. There is a $6 parking fee to visit the park, and the whole park and be toured in an hour or even a half hour due to its smaller size. It is fantastic in the fall as the valley oak trees change colors and begin to lose their leaves. There are a few historic building, and exhibits inside each that share the history of the location and what life was like...