Tulare is a city in Tulare County, California. The population was 59,278 at the 2010 census. Tulare is located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, eight miles south of Visalia and sixty miles north of Bakersfield. The city is named for the Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. The Stockton seaport is 170 miles away, and the Sacramento port is 207 miles away.