The Kern County Travel Guide:
three Californias, one county line.

Kern County is genuinely three different places in one: Bakersfield and the Central Valley farm towns, birthplace of the honky-tonk 'Bakersfield Sound' country-music genre led by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard; the Sierra Nevada mountains around the Wild and Scenic Kern River, Lake Isabella, and Sequoia National Forest; and the Mojave Desert side, home to Red Rock Canyon's striped cliffs and the Tehachapi Pass wind farms. It's the third-largest county in California by area.

No. This is an independent, editorially-run travel guide. The domain belonged to the real Kern County Board of Trade / Tourism Bureau, a quasi-governmental agency that the county Board of Supervisors voted to dissolve in January 2020. No official Kern County government tourism office currently exists — this site is not affiliated with any government agency.

This is a driving destination — there's no meaningful public transit connecting the county's three regions. Highway 178 runs from Bakersfield through Kern River Canyon to Lake Isabella and Kernville; Highway 58 climbs Tehachapi Pass toward the desert towns; Highway 14 reaches Red Rock Canyon and the Mojave. See our full visitor's guide for drive times and road-condition tips.

It depends which region: the valley around Bakersfield has hot, dry summers and mild winters; the mountains run cooler year-round with winter snow at elevation; the desert swings hardest, from brutal summer heat to cold winter nights. Spring is generally the best all-around window, for wildflowers and comfortable temperatures across all three regions.

Pick one region per trip rather than trying to cover all three — they're genuinely different landscapes and driving between them takes real time. Bakersfield and the Kern River Valley (Kernville/Lake Isabella) are the two most accessible starting points for most visitors; the desert side rewards a dedicated trip once the basics are covered.