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If there is one truly treasured benefit to living in Los Banos it is the myriad of outdoor recreational opportunities that are available to all of our residents. Tourists and visitors to our city are welcome to come and share the area's benefits, but our citizens are truly blessed to live in the heart of an area with spectacular natural areas providing dozens of diverse recreational activities for outdoorsmen and people who love nature's beauty.

Self Directed Recreation & Natural Wonders
Los Banos is blessed to be in an area that is very close to a true abundance of natural recreation activities. These include east access to almost any activity you can think of, hunting, fishing, hiking, sailing, swimming, picnicking, camping, boating, sailboarding, off-roading, trapshooting, equestrian activities, and any number of other outdoor opportunities.

• Los Banos Creek State Recreation Area and Los Banos Reservoir
  The Los Banos creek area is particularly 'famous' for its fishing opportunities, but there is a lot more to do there if you are not an angler!
  Click this link for more information.
  
  
• The Merced National Wildlife Refuge
  The Merced National Wildlife Refuge has over 2000 acres of wetland wildlife habitat and over 7000 acres of grasslands and other habitat. The MNWR is great place for birdwatching and hunting.
  Click this link for more information.
  
  
• The Great Valley Grasslands Park
  The Great Valley Grasslands park not only has some unique species and floral beauty to observe but it also serves the important function of preserving some of the last intact grasslands of the San Jouquin Valley.
  Click this link for more information.
  
  
• The Los Banos Wildlife Area
  Amongst other things, you can hunt, fish, participate in training water dogs, observe lots of wildlife, enjoy camping or ride your bike at the LosBanos Wildlife Area.
  Click this link for more information.
  
  
• The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge
  The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge is a quiet and peaceful place to visit. Famous for its Tule Elk enclosure the refuge in an excellent place to imbibe natures beauty and view a host of examples of the local wildlife.
  Click this link for more information.
  
  
• The San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area
  The San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area is probably the most visible and best known of the Los Banos area outdoor recreational venues. It offers a very diverse assortment of things to do including hunting, boating of every kind, fishing, sailboarding, watersports too numerous to mention, equestrian, ATV and off-road motorcycle trails, dirt biking and much much more. There are numerous camping facilities for both tent and RV campers as well as showers, and plenty of educational opportunities at the Romero visitor center and elsewhere.
  Click this link for more information.
  
  
• Grassland Ecological Area
  This massive 160000 acre area should be visited after a stop at the Grassland Interpretive center. Much of the land is privately held and you will want to know the rules and Boundaries for the activities you want to participate in. Hunting, hiking, bird watching, and other nature centric activities are available. The grasslands is said to comprise the last 5 percent of such areas left in California.
  Click this link for more information.

As you can see Los Banos offers a huge and diverse selection of natural outdoor activities and venues. When I noted in the first part of this page that we were blessed to live in this area I meant it! If all of the choices above are not quite enough for you Yosemite National Park is only about a couple of hours to the east, and the Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz are about the same distance to the West.

This segment of the website covers only a portion of what one can find to do for recreation in and around Los Banos California. Other parts of this website cover different kinds of recreation available in our town. Please have a look at these pages:

Indoor Recreation - City Parks - Organized Recreation

Before you go out don't forget to check the weather

Here are a couple of other interesting links:

Los Banos Bird Count Results
LB Bird Photography

A note about hunting:
In case you find the many mentions of hunting or game availability on the pages linked above to be in any way distasteful I would like to respectfully remind you that despite the stereotype, hunters are some of the best naturalists in California. The state of California actually uses hunters and hunting as a key tool in the State's wildlife management plan. Hunters and other shooting enthusiasts contribute far more to wildlife habitat conservation and management than all other sources combined. The following quote taken directly from the Grassland site speaks for itself:

A national survey by the U.S. Department of the Interior reveals that hunters spend $12.3 billion each year for travel , licenses, duck stamps and excise taxes on firearms, ammunition and equipment to finance wildlife research and management. These funds are also used to purchase and protect wildlife habitat that benefits a wide variety of game, non-game and plant life on a year-round basis. In California, expenditures by hunters are far greater than those provided for wildlife by the non-hunting public. In 1994, the state Department of Fish and Game received more than $11 million in revenue for wildlife management from hunters, compared to just $41,629 collected from non- hunters through the California Wildlife Campaign and only $532,000 donated through state Income tax returns for Rare and Endangered Species Preservation. Unfortunately, the degradation and reduction of wetland habitat within California over the past 100 years has resulted in a steady decline in revenues generated from hunters. This trend will likely continue unless the public becomes educated in the role of the hunting community in preserving our wetlands and wildlife resources for all to enjoy.