Wind Wolves Preserve — Attraction in Arvin

This is a camping review. Wind Wolves has a fantastic campground as long as you understand there are a few uncommon features.

The campground is located on a small bluff overlooking the southern Central Valley. There are many great things about the campground: The bathrooms are flush, in a nice rock building and extremely well maintained. The campground is ‘curated’ with rock walls, plus a rock lined pond and stream flowing thru some sites. Very nice aesthetics. I heard more nighttime sounds there than almost anywhere else. Frogs croaking in the pond, owls hooting from the trees, with the occasional coyote throw in. Being on a bluff overlooking the valley lets you sit and watch the lights of the valley at night. It has a good dark sky too, but adding the view over the valley makes it quite special. The Wind Wolves employees are extremely nice, polite, and helpful. And finally……the price….its free! Unbelievable.

If those points make you want to visit, you should……however there are also a few points to be aware of. It’s not a big campground, so you need to call for reservations. It’s tent and camper van only…..no space for trailers. Campfires are limited. There are no individual fire rings, only one communal ring and its availability is limited due to fire restrictions. They close and lock the gate at night which means you can only enter and exit between 8am-5pm. This means no early start when leaving the campground, plus a little stress when arriving from afar since traffic or an unexpected delay can put you outside the...

My family and I enjoy coming to this preserve when we can, but I have some suggestions that might help it improve and be more welcoming to visitors. First off, we did not check the website before visiting and were surprised that the park is locked up and closed on major holidays such as Thanksgiving. Growing up in the Bay Area, I have memories of hikes at Mt. Tamalpais State Park, exploring the Marin Headlands, etc. and often for families the holidays are the best times to enjoy the outdoors together. Even major parks near populated areas of California are not gated off like this during holidays, even when park staff are not present. The silly thing is that the small number of people who showed up were simply parking outside the gate and walking in, behaving responsibly, which begs the question why such a closure is needed in the first place. We also noticed there seemed to be a lot of specific signs listing specific banned behaviors, that seemed to reference specific undesired activities at the park, such as having large birthday parties or using balloons. Is "no littering" no longer specific enough? While I understand the need to protect the park, is this in response to specific incidents or more abstract fears? There is such a lack of public land in this part of the state, and "welcoming" visitors with locked gates, limited hours, and warnings not to do things, gives the impression you are trying to keep people from coming here and does not promote accessible and inclusive use of...

Great for training hikes but be aware of the "no extra photography equipment" rule so for anyone wanting to do drone photography/videography near here they just have that policy on-site but they don't have any actual FAA airspace restrictions so you just have to stay off the property while flying.

Aside from that, it's just 93,000 acres of hot and dry trails with barely any shade, no swimming allowed in any of the areas where it would be really nice to swim and the places where you can swim (out in the lesser travelled areas) are either full of ticks or just completely overgrown. There are some places tucked away in the brush with tables and benches where there is/was plenty of shade but it looks like no one has maintained it in at least the past 20+ years.

Free camping, but typical California (parenting) laws about open flames, because full-grown adults out here can't be trusted with matches or something. Excellent hot/dry/flat trails for practicing gravel runs and the Tule Elk Trail has about an 800ft climb to practice on.

Safety: I've only ever seen a staff member once about a year ago driving in their truck somewhere as I was entering. Aside from that you're basically on your own. No check in/out. Keep your phone on you in case you get bit by something gnarly or fall or something. W6LIE amateur radio repeater signal (145.150 pl-0.6) is strong pretty much everywhere unless you get into the low-lying areas in case you want to take...