Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area

Hey California… quit charging resort prices for dirt! I give 3 because the lake was beautiful.

I just came here after not knowing that it existed for a four day long camping event. The drive out from the Ventura area was about 2 hours, not too bad if you take the 126 directly to the 5. I was extremely worried about some of the things that other reviewers mentioned, such as roaches falling out of trees, an overabundance of flies, mosquitoes and gopher holes. I found that these have all been greatly exaggerated, especially the part about the roaches. I was here for four days, sleeping on the ground in a tent near the water, and I did not see one roach. Neither did any of the people I camped with (and we were a HUGE group). As a matter of fact, I can’t think of any person I saw during my four days here complaining about a single roach. There were not enough roaches here to count as an ‘infestation’ as some others reviewing this site have called it.
The flies are a different story. The place is like a fly heaven, and I’m not sure why. That’s why I’m detracting a star. The gopher holes were extremely annoying, as well as being damn near impossible to see, especially when walking at night with only a flashlight. Even so, during the day you can easily avoid them, especially if you’re not too inebriated to shuffle your feet when you walk. The bathrooms, I will say, are not the cleanest. That may be due to so many people using them for the time that I was there. There was also plenty of toilet paper, which is something I can’t say for many other places I’ve camped at.
Everything else aside, this location is really quite nice. There are enough trees to make you feel happy and comfortable, and it is so large it can easily accomodate a big group. The sunsets on the lake are also bar none, spectacular. At night you can see the Milky Way (no kidding, there are very few places in SoCal where this is actually possible and that made me extremely happy) and all of the stars that come along with clean, non polluted air. There is even a place in the lake where you can swim, though doing that may or may not be the best idea.
Buena Vista Rec Area really isn’t the horror show that some people on Unilocal say that it is.

If I could give this place a negative I would. The infestation of flies and roaches is disgusting. The harassment from the ranger was even more annoying. First night we did brake the rules by having the music on after ten. But instead, of being warned appropriately, we got threatened of being kicked out and our spot being rented to someone else. Second night, our family was split. The rule is no more than ten in a campsite after ten. So that means your family has to be separated. Third day, the ranger went straight to our speaker to turn it off. After playing the same speaker for the previous three days, the ranger said we couldn’t have it. On Saturday and Sunday, no one came to clean the restrooms. Which to me, that’s the busiest time. Never the less, I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS PLACE AND WE WILL NEVER GO BACK

It’s okay, we are here with the church group, and it’s nicer than the other reviews has it recorded! Restrooms are dirty. FYI. See pictures pls. There were a lot Of roaches, just crawling around the grassy campsite!

We came here for a birthday party for my wife’s cousin’s child. We come here at least once or twice each summer because my wife’s uncle has a boat. This is a great spot for boating and boat activities.
Problems are that they do not allow people to swim where they could. There are large areas with a small beach and shallow water that are way far away from where the boats are. They should allow swimming there with no problem, but they do not. We normally do anyway, until they tell us to stop. And guess what, over the years there’s been zero problems.
Another complaint is the raise in prices this season with no improvements that I could see.
Also, seeing as this is a county run center, I think, as a county employee, I should get a discount :-)

We went for a family weekend trip. We used to be avid campers and have been here many times before we had kids. We have always enjoyed the lake and park-​like setting.
Fast forward 15+ years and this place is yucky. Not at all like it used to be. Yeah, I know, we are conserving water in California and I expected it to be a little «blech» looking. That was the least worry of our experience.
We rented two camping spots #64 & #66 which were right next to each other, 1 row behind the spots on the water. 17 people total in our party.
So let’s start with the pro’s.
— It was very affordable at $ 26/​night per spot
— Our family bonded great and the cousins got to have fun together.
Yup, that’s it, only 2 pros.
Now for the con’s.
— The lake is a $hithole. I am talking nasty, dirty, trashy shores, I didn’t want to put my feet in the water! It was that gross. My daughter even came home with a bacterial infection in her ear from the dirty muck in the water.
— There are so many gopher holes in the overgrown and unkempt grass. Everyone in our group tripped or sank. My step mom tweaked her back, my son twisted his ankle. It eliminated the fun activities we had planned, like Frisbee & football.
— The bathrooms (I can only speak for the womens) smelled like a nasty fish parlor and had John Wayne 1-​ply toilet paper. There was no soap or paper towels.
So be sure to bring your own if you decide (against the reviews) to visit this place.
— They don’t enforce the quiet hours that they post. I just thought that I would mention that because the spot behind us had a very crazy & loud mouthed mom who yelled the F-​bomb at her punk kids and her man all night. My kids take back ever thinking I am a mean mom after witnessing that wacko. so technically I could actually put this in the pro list. Really though, it felt like we were in a Jerry Springer trailer park!
— BEST FOR LAST — On Friday night we were having dinner at the park bench and something fell out of the tree above us. Then something else fell down. We shined the light to see what the heck it was. As we went to get the lantern we noticed something on the tree. What the hell? ROACHES! Tons of them. Coming out of the tree holes and falling out of the tree above us. The place was INFESTED! I have never seen so many roaches pouring out of anywhere in my life! Nobody could sit. Nobody could eat. Nobody wanted to be anywhere by or under that tree. Then we saw them crawling around our tents, on the grass, everywhere we shined the light we saw roaches! It was pretty disgusting!
There is a lot of room for improvement! Time to do some housekeeping!
2-​star experience — despite the mishaps our family created memories. Even if they are funny, gross and disgusting!

We have been going to Buena Vista for about 10 years now! Never once have we had a bad expierence (obviously 10 years). We always camp with our motorhome in what we call the horseshoe, on the water side. We camp with 4 other familes, sometimes more. The horseshoe is great because you have water on one side, grass everywhere else, a bathroom right in the middle, and a playground opposite from the water! The kids spend half the day in the water and the other half on the playground, running around playing hide and seek, or riding their bikes on the street. Our kids have the best time every time we go and never want to leave! Yes they do have patrols every night as well, trust me, they’ve had to tell us to shh shh a couple times! I’ve never once in 10 years heard someone playing loud music till the AM! As far as the «cow smell» yes, it does get bad sometimes but you’re surrounded by cattle farms what do you expect, and once your on your campsite you normally CAN NOT smell it! As far as cleanlyness goes, no, not always clean. That has nothig to do with the park, thats the dirty disrespectful campers that dont clean up after them selves! Hello we’re camping, campings not known to be «clean». As far as the water goes, we’ve brought boats and seedos (when they were allowed on the whole lake) and have never had any issues with water levels! Overall we have the best time together as families when we go camping in Buena Vista, too many good memories over the years to even count!

WORST CAMPING EXPERIENCE EVER!!! Came here for the 1^st time over Columbus Day weekend with the travel trailer and 18 foot Sea Ray boat. Thousands of flies like you have never seen before, so annoying! Raccoons come and raid the campgrounds every night, even when you put your food away, dirty, nasty bathrooms, no toilet paper or lights, lukewarm showers, trash all over the floor. The worst part of all was that they never mentioned once, upon check-​in, that the lake was EXTREMELY SHALLOW! like only 2 feet deep! Ruined my brand new prop, and caused a leak in the engine that is going to cost me $ 1100 hundred dollars to fix my boat!!! SO mad, I will NEVER go here again. We stopped once, in the middle of the lake and the teenage kids jumped out to see how deep it was, it just barely came up to their waists! So wrong, this place needs to tell people about this crap! Don’t bring your boat here unless you want it ruined, unless you have a rowboat… This place stinks literally and figureatively! (From all the cattle farms surrounding it)…

I’m no stranger to camping, but I’d never been to this lake or campground before this past Labor Day weekend, upon my sister-in-law’s recommendation. It was absolutely disgusting.
Every three campsites share one portopotty. I refused to go near it, but my brother told me it was nearly full and he couldn’t have even guessed when it may have been cleaned last. My friend and I walked a half mile down the main road and found a real bathroom, but the stalls didn’t have doors and they were filthy — toilet paper and tampon wrappers were all over the floor, and ants were everywhere, including on the toilet seats.
There were no park rangers or campground managers around to tell people to turn their music down at night. The campers around us were blasting hip hop and mariachi until well after midnight. I’ve never been to a campground that wasn’t patrolled for that.
As for the lake, it’s sandy, not rocky, but it’s filthy. I can’t even tell you how much trash my friends and I pulled out of the lake every day we were there.
This place is nasty. Skip it and make the drive to Lake Isabella instead.