Quaking Aspen Campground — Hotel in Porterville

Great little cabin! Not trying too hard to NOT be camping, but not so rugged that you feel like you're roughing it. Perfect for city kids who want to be in nature-but still have running water and electricity. :) Fair warning: It's out in the middle of the woods-we didn't pass a gas station for about 2 hours prior to getting there (coming in from the south) and there wasn't another one until you get to Camp Nelson about 20 minutes beyond-and the paved roads are pretty winding. BUT there are amazing trials and such beauty ALL around you! The cabin was well stocked. We stayed in HOT July and the temperatures were very pleasant. I think the pictures speak for themselves about the cabin. ||||VERY good map for the area: The Kern River Sierra by Extremeline Productions. REI - $13 || ||Here is the list of things we did:||Natural Waterslides – Hot Buttered Rump, From Johnsondale take Loyd Meadows Road North. When you pass the boyscout camp the trailhead is 3.1 miles further north. Park on right and start hike by going through the green gate at forest road 22S83. Hike just under 1 mile-it's not marked, so you just kind-of have to guess and listen for people. Slides are at the intersection of Alder Creek and Dry Meadow Creek.|| ||We passed south creek falls and ate dinner/picnic near limestone campround, down a super windy road. Nice, calm little spot to let the kids splash or float on the river. Probably not worth a daytrip, but fun for an hour or so. || ||Trail of 100 Giants-we loved this-wasn't very crowded when we were there and great for pictures. Very cool because you can get up right next to the trees and climb on them. ||||Bike ride from Quaking Aspen Campground to Camp Nelson (8 miles downhill) = Have someone pick you up in ||Camp Nelson. Trailhead is behind campsite number 23. This is a GORGEOUS, but technical trail-even our group of experienced amateurs had some wrecks and had to push through. If you are an inexperienced or lone rider, this may not be a good pick||||Dome Rock – Beautiful view, great star gazing and astro photography HIGHLY RECOMMEND Easy, short hike up and breathtaking views-especially of the stars. Watch your kids though, it is a sheer, unfenced drop.||||Natural Waterslides and swimming holes: From Quaking Aspen Campground Take 190 toward Porterville. Make a right at road 208 toward Wishon. The turnoff is just after you cross over a bridge. It is a sharp switchback to the right. The trailheads are at the no fires signs. The first sign has a very steep trail to a very large pool with a little slide and huge waterslide south of the pool. The extent of the slide isn’t visible from the top and it’s difficult to get to the bottom of the slide by climbing. The second no fires sign has an easier trail but the swimming pool has a strong current and the rapids/slide is best done with a small boat. These are the only two trails we went down. There are swimming holes up and down this river.||||Small swimming hole down forest service road 21S07 at...

We decided to get the cabin because we were camping with a baby and thought it might be too cold to camp in a tent here. We were right, as it ended up raining on us in the middle of California's big drought. So it was a good choice for us. The cabin was larger than I expected with two tables, two couches, and a sitting chair. There were 5 plastic lawn chairs on the patio, which also came in handy during the rain. A picnic table outside next to a stone sidewalk and fire pit and a separate outdoor grill. The cabin was stocked with just about everything you need. Pots, pans, utensils, can opener, even oven mits and strainers. It was also supplied with toilet paper, paper towels, and cleaning supplies and detergents. Although I couldn't tell if these items had been purposely stocked or accumulated from being left behind from previous tenants. The cabin did have a mildewey smell and want the cleanest, but guests are in charge of cleaning up after themselves, and obviously some will take that more seriously than others. Although it would probably be beneficial for the place to hire a cleaning service every now and then to deep clean, which obviously needs to be done. And you definitely want to bring your own bed linens, pillows, and pillowcases. The queen bed had a comforter and pillows on it, but who knew how long is been since they've been washed. I'd say the cleanliness of the place was is only real downside. And for the price you pay I don't see why the guests need to do it themselves. |There is a live-on-site ranger there, which is nice. He had an rv parked right next to the cabin and as far as we could tell he was always there. Had an office next to the rv they sold fire wood out of. The campground was really nice. Sites were not backed up to each other and trees surrounded everything, except the meadow. There was a brand new yurt there when we stayed and platforms for 2 more being built. The ranger told us that it was in the plans to eventually have all the sites at this campground to have yurts. |And while you are at 7000ft and in the middle of forrests, you aren't completely in the middle of nowhere. There's a tiny place there that I think is technically a town, and right along the highway, almost walking distance from the campground is an all encompassing restaurant / bed and breakfast/bar/convenient Store/gas station. While there is no reception here, they...

We were lucky to get a campsite at this location. We grabbed one of the only non-reserved spots in the campground (site #29). The campgrounds are clean, in the thick of trees and relatively secluded from other campers. Our site was great, however we had to share a Bear Box with our neighbors who were in a Yurt. The Yurt prices are $88 a night and they are pretty cool. I think they have bunk beds and a double bed in each Yurt. The campground also has vault toilets and running water at the spigot. As of now, you can collect your own firewood near your site and we had enough wood to last us three nights. A great place to camp. No power hookups or dump.

No cellphone service. If you need to be "connected", we suggest going up the road to the Ponderosa cafe/store where they have wifi. The password as of today was, "nostreamingplease". Do them a favor and purchase something if you use the wifi. If you want to make a cellphone call, drive over to Dome Rock (about 2 miles down the road) and you will be amazed that you will get almost 4 bars!

We suggest the Needles Hike to the Lookout Tower (see pictures). It's about a mile down the road from the campsite (drive to the end of Needles Road). Beautiful hike and stunning views. The drive in can be sketchy, so we recommend a high clearance vehicle.

Enjoy....