Dorst Campground is really in the middle of the forest. My family and I stayed 4 nites, drove in from the coast on Sunday nite and left early Thurs. morning. We were in a 26 ft. R.V. and stayed in campsite 15. Since this campsite is on the outskirts of the campground we had no problems with noise from other campers. This site involved backing in to the site with our RV, but definitely big and long enough for a bigger RV if needed. Dorst Creek was right in the back of our campsite, so it was really relaxing hearing the water. Plenty of room on the western side of the campsite to play frisbee or even set up a badminton net if you are into that. Would also be great for horseshoe's too! The downside of this campsite is that it has a direct western sun evening exposure, so if you don't have an awning or canopy it can make your RV or trailer a little hot.
All in all this is a beautiful campground. We did see a bear down by the stream right behind our campsite. We found out later that the bear's name is Sandy. So if you see a blondish brown bear with a very large ear tag, thats Sandy. We were told that Sandy really likes to raid your campground when you are not around, So please use the bear boxes if you are tenting, or in a tent trailer. Otherwise, if you are in an RV like we were, just make sure when you leave your RV at your site, you close all windows, and vents, put up the front privacy curtains and close all shades. What a bear can't see, they won't go after, but if they can see anything up in the drivers area that looks like food (leftover trash from McD's for instance) they will break your windows and then you will have a bear in your trailer~Not fun at all~
One last thing, if you are up to a beautiful hike, at the backside of this campground is the Muir Trail that goes to a lovely grouping of Giant Sequoia's. It's 2 miles in and 2 miles back over the same trail, thats 4 miles in total. About 1/2 way is a great rock overlook, that really gives you an ontop view. Quite a nice place to eat your lunch. This trail is marked Moderate in all the review books, but because of the high altitude and if you are not in good shape, I would take it slow. Make sure that you look for bear and deer while you are walking. We saw two male mule deer with full antler! Have a good time! Look for my review here in TripAdvisor under Sequoia National Park~I give a complete description on the Shuttle System that I think would be quite helpful to everyone!

Dorst creek campground might be the best campground in the giant forest. We were there for 5 days and only saw one bear the entire week. We were worried because of prior reviews, but the rangers told us they had problems with bears last year. Nothing this year.

Reserved for a quick one nighter over July 4 weekend .Snagged the last night using reserve.america online reservatoin system about two weeks beforehand.

The campground is very open and spread and large. Noise travels and sadly, so too do people's TVs, radios, and the like making my camping less than peaceful at times. Our campsite was literally on top of the one beside us. Plus we had little to no shade at all. Not a huge deal cause we were mostly out of the site playing, but I noticed this was true for many of the sites in the area.

Expect a decent campsite - very family friendly and oriented so noise is a problem as is poor bear safety practices with food, etc. The rangers themselves were MIA outside of check-in. Bears came in and caused a ruckus. Did not effect me too much, but was never comfy knowing I slept across from the dumpster and with poor bear safety by many in the campsite this will never die down...

All in all the best part of staying here reinforced to my wife why backpacking is always better than car camping! So Dorst had that win!

We stayed there only one night because there was no more place at the Lodgepole campground. We didn't have any bear that night, but when we registered, the girl told us there were lots of bears at this campground (and I didn't see anyone else working there...). We've liked to have a large tent site so that our tent was not near the bear locker. This campground is a bit far from the main attractions and there is no shower... so we had to go to the Lodgepole to have a shower. It's good for people without car because a bus goes from the Lodgepole to Dorst campground every 30 minutes.