San Luis National Wildlife Refuge - Main Unit — Attraction in Los Banos

This place is nice, lots of wildlife. In evenings and dusk into the night lots of owls, coyote, rabbits, and beware thousands of vicious mosquitos so bring proper clothing and lots of mosquito spray. These mosquitos will attach u everywhere. If u miss a spot with mosquito spray they WILL find it. If u have ur car window cracked open they'll get in hand fills at a time. I recommend hot shot flying insect spray it will kill mosquitos on contact. They are everywhere. As soon as u open ur vehicle door they're waiting like they know. No one is exempt. If u don't have spray u will get almost eaten alive no exaggeration. I also have seen some wild and mysterious creatures in the night. For example one night my ex wife and I were driving on Wolfson rd towards the wild life reserve on San Luis wild life refuge. I saw a dark creature on left side past the road and a ditch that was about 4 ft wide off the shoulder about 4 ft also. It jumped about 6-7ft in the air and it jumped across the front and higher than my fort areo star mini van and cleared the ditch on left side past 4ft off shoulder, the whole width of road and shoulder and another 4ft past shoulder a 4ft ditch on passengers side of rd. It landed about 20-25ft from the right side shoulder. I gotta say it looked like a kangaroo but half it's size. But at same time it landed in field of passengers side as I turned my van to see it with high beams it disapeaered on the air into the thick darkness and was gone. I never seen or heard of any animal that free jumps that far without a running start. Plus I'm not sure if it glided in the air or actually flew. To the date it looked like it did both. Jumped then landed and sprang back in the air or it hit the ground and launched its self into the air and flew off. It happened so fast it was weird. My ex also seen it so I know I didn't hallucinate. Never seen it again. Another time I heard loud giant splashes in a creek that runs under the only bridge next to my friends house on the refuge. This was about 2-4 Am it sounded like giant steps like of a person chasing something in the water. This went on for like 10-15mins. I could hear a much smaller and lighter splashes followed by some heavy fast splashing like when anyone tries running in water from the knee down like when playing tag in shallowish water. Exactly like that except it sounded large and heavy. It went further from the area I was at and upstream. It would pause every so often and then us hear the lighter splashes then the heavy one's. I don't know of any big animals there that be the cause of these human like running in water splashes. Idk what it was and I sure wasn't gonna get out my car and try to check to see what it was. It sounded way bigger than my 5'10.5 height. So it remains mysterious in my mind for sure. I know it wasn't no bear or human. No bears exist there. But other than that a good...

The staff working there was horrible. Upon reaching the visitor center, whoever sit there didn’t even bother to look up or say hi. When being asked about directions, she pretended didn’t hear the first time, making impatient sound. I stood there, waited for a couple minutes, finally she looked up and answered that one question. I’m the only one in this place, it must be a very busy day for her.

Later, I unfortunately followed Google maps and took the Hereford rd path, got stuck on one muddy spot. I called road side service and the visitor center. The answer from her again was impatient with no empathy. Telling me “No one here can help you.” That’s it. No wonder they didn’t even bother mark the unsafe road.

I’ve been to many national parks and wildlife refuges, and this is by far the worst. I didn’t know how a place claim to protect animal would treat their fellow human so cold. I hope whoever pick up that phone can live with their conscious.

To anyone who has the patience to read through this review. Go to the Merced national wildlife refuge, their road are well maintained and their marshes are full of migrating birds. There’s not much birds in this refuge, and a tons of coyotes at night. Maybe there’s a...

Great place for a quick visit, especially if you like seeing and experiencing native wildlife. It is free to enter and park, and there is a nice visitor center that has an impressive display of local birds, as well as information on the Tule Elk, and several brochures you can take on the go. The staff was helpful, and they pointed us in the direction of a picnic table for our lunch we brought.

We hiked the 0.8 mile trail near the visitor center and were fascinated with the bird activity, especially along the boardwalk that extends out into the marsh. We also did the auto tour of the Tule Elk enclosure and were able to see this amazing species native to California and once thought extinct. We easily spent 2 hours here, and will most likely return sometime to take the birding auto tour.

We went in the spring, and it was beautiful and green. But being in the Central Valley, I imagine it can get hot in the summers. We encountered some mosquitoes on our hike, but only in one section. And keep in mind that the auto tour roads are dirt - well maintained, flat, free of obstacles, but obviously a...