Los Banos is offers a number of organized recreational activities that visitors and citizens of the community can participate in. These opportunities range from the exciting to the mundane.

.Merced County Spring Fair - The Spring Fair brings together a large number of people from around the county. There is something for everyone at the spring fair, with things to do from from agricultural exhibits to carnival rides and fun food from funnel cakes to tri tip sandwiches nearly everyone will have a good time. There are also concerts, motorcycle races, destruction derbys, and a petting zoo.

Photographs taken at the Merced County Spring Fair in Los Banos

Geocaching In & Near Los Banos - Geocaching is a neat activity centered around an online web listing of hidden locations that is part treasure hunt and part exploration of ones location. Using a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, participants seek out containers of trinkets (a geocache) hidden by other participants and in doing so they get to discover new and interesting places and observe things that they may not have otherwise seen before. Caches are usually located near something kind of interesting or even educational. Geocaching is an interesting mix of high tech, sleuthing, and in some cases observation of the natural environment.

Los Banos Sportsmen's Trapshooting Club
The Los Banos Sportsmen's Trapshooting club offers members and guests the opportunity to pulverize flying clay disks by mechanically actuating a pyrochemical reaction within a small plastic brass based tube called a shell which itself is positioned within a long slim metal tube which is mounted securely into a wooden handle. This wooden and metal contrivance is pointed at the sky where the ceramic disks appear in response to voice activation of the operator. If the operator of the wooden handled device is properly positioned and if the timing of the mechanical actuation is precise the pyrotechnic reaction will accelerate a large number of tiny heavy metal spheres into the air at high velocity. These spheres will then come into contact with the ceramic disk and thus produce a sense of euphoria in the operator of the wooden handled device. Trapshooters can practice their art here and get in a little practice before bird and duck hunting seasons.

We are actively looking to expand this section. If you have suggestions that you would like to see listed please do contact us!

This page of the website covers what we call Organized Recreational Activities. You might also want to consider looking at our other recreation sections:

Indoor Recreation - City Parks - Outdoor & Wild Area Recreation

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

A note about hunting and shooting:
In case you find the mention of shooting sports, hunting or the like to be in any way distasteful I would like to respectfully remind you that despite the stereotype, shooting enthusiasts are some of the biggest contributors to wildlife conservation in California. 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 volumes:

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.