Great location for the campground - not too far from the free Sequoia parks shuttle service and Kings Canyon. Cooler temperatures at Dorst campground than some of the other campgrounds (i.e. Potwisha campground) where it can get up to 100F.
Despite lectures from rangers, novice campers leave food out in the open – and hence bear raids happen every night. Campers band together to scare the bears away – each time this occurred (every night for our 4 night stay there) there were no rangers in sight. The bears are after the food not the humans, as long as you keep your campsite clean you should not have a problem. But still quite scary, especially our last night when there was a bear raid every hour on the hour from midnight till 4am.

To be fair, Dorst Creek Campground is very beautiful. There are campsites that back into lovely meadows full of wildflowers in July and creeks that hiss all night long. There are woods and stands of trees and creeks to wade in, and rocks to climb for the kids or their parents. The housekeeping is good enough but nothing to write home about, and the rangers are friendly, although not spectacular.

Dorst is situated between Lodgepole, in Sequoia NP, and Grant Grove, in Kings Canyon NP and is fairly accessible to both. SNP has a convenient shuttle bus that takes you to Lodgepole and the major attractions, so if that is all you're interested in, you can save a lot of gas.

Dorst has some particularly awful campsites. As we drove in on Sunday afternoon, we saw tents cheek-by-jowl. It looked like a tent condominium complex in places. Some have little parking lots below the sites, and you have to haul your gear up a hill. There is one site in H Loop (203, I think) that has no shade, no level ground, is the path people take to the restroom, and the firepit was literally 10 feet from the dumpster. Check the map carefully. There are some nice ones, too. We had 205, which was incredible.

Now, about the bears. When we registered, the ranger told us they had had 13 cars broken into in 2 weeks, and there were also mountain lions known to be in the area. She said she "wouldn't go to the bathroom alone at night," which is fine if you have the bladder of a 22-year-old. We had to lock up EVERYTHING, including the stove, our backpacks that smelled of the food we'd carried all day, my purse (gum), the cooler, the dishpan, and anything else that might have come in contact with food or had a strong odor. I had to carry the dishwater uphill to the restroom to dump it in the toilet. I had to plan day trips around meal times, or what we could carry, because we couldn't leave the cooler in the car while we traipsed around. It was a pain in the neck.

We saw bears in and around the campground every day. There were horns honking and people shouting, air horns, and even shotgun blasts at some point every night for a week. And the noise had to go on for a long time before the bears were discouraged enough to go away. Note that I didn't say "frightened." In my personal bear encounter, a bear broke into the bear box on the campsite next to ours, and my neighbor and I shouted, honked horns, screamed, and blew a whistle while the bear stood there, deciding how to get past these pesky humans to get at all that food it had freed from the box. These bears are over-populated, totally accustomed to humans, and not easy to scare off.

When this wasn't going on, the campground was peaceful. Lots of families with kids.

I have camped alone in the past, but would never do it here. SNP doesn't have enough to offer for a second trip, or even a full week of camping, except its wilderness trails. I would never backpack here, except for maybe with a large group.

As you may notice, the happy reviews of 2003 give way to frightened reviews by those who recently camped and Dorst. We are seasoned bear campers...I'm 46 years old with two kids age 9 and 11. NEVER have I encountered so many bears at Sequioa as this year. In a five night stay between the campgrounds and hiking we saw 10 bears total! On the first night, one went right down the road between our campsites (we vacationed with another family) and was small and wandered off as soon as we made noise. But the second night a 7 foot black bear, untagged (called "wild" by the park volunteer at Lodgepole whom we gave the description to) broke into our minivan by pulling off the back window that had been left adjar. I had mistakenly overlooked three packs of gum I had left in my kleenex box and he had smelled it and was trying to get to it when my friend camping across the way scared it off by yelling and running towards it. Before that I had activated my car alarm and had blown a bull horn three times to no avail. Only human voices and presence was able to scare it off.

While I admit my mistake, I also have noticed that campers at Dorst are on their own. No rangers or bear techs patrol any more at night due to budget cuts. Only on the weekends do they sometimes come by. NIght after night car alarms go off all over the campgrounds and you sit wondering when your turn is coming. Even if you don't have a few sticks of gum hidden/forgotten in your car they come into the campsite anyways to see what they can find. It's out of control and the park has no plans to deal with it.

One night a family of very small children was visited by a bear and they screamed at it for several minutes before it would leave. This was the night after our break in and this family was just down a small hill from us. I put the kids in the van and went to the pay phone to call 911 feeling unsafe. The payphone was DEAD! So we drove to Lodgepole and called 911. Nothing happened...by 9 am the next morning a sweet 20something volunteer, who helped the elusive bear techs, of which there are only TWO left, came by to see what had happened the night before. She explained the budget cuts and said "we really don't know why Dorst has such a bear problem or why the Dorst bears are so aggresive and unafraid of humans". Her only explaination was that Dorst was only open two months out of the year as it is an overflow/afterthought to Lodgepole. So the bears aren't used to sharing with humans. So, picture yourself camping in the back country with your small children and that's the mixture you get at Dorst...that is also the protection you get from the Park Service....so if you are comfortable with that...go ahead and have a good time!!! Just check your car two and three times over before your head hits that pillow!!!!

We have stayed at Dorst almost every summer for the last 16 years with my wife and daughters. It has changed a lot, and a whole lot more crowded and much different type of campers. It is still my favorite place on earth. My family have met so many different people from all over the world, folks who have had the luxury of traveling the globe. And almost without exception the all say the same thing the Sequoias are one of the most stunning places they have ever been.

Dorst is a great place to camp, if you follow the rules particularly in respect to the bears.
Plan your stay at Dorst, take a day or so just to relax and enjoy the surroundings, then plan your day trips. There is so much to see and do and please get off the beaten path every once in while, take a deep breath and reflect. This truly is one of God's gifts.