Dorabelle Campground

Camp ground is close for now just found that by driving up there to check it out while we were on a ride, it’s closed because of the dead tree problem up there ittl take time before their all cleared out to be safe, 1 star cuz I couldn’t see the camp ground

5 stars for campground and location have always had a great stay
but there is a real bitch as a camp host everyone there cant stand her even her hubby
still a great camp just avoid the bitch good luck

We were there the 2^nd week of June. Secluded campground, even though only a few minutes from the main road. Very well maintained grounds, and the staff were awesome. Surrounded by trees and lake is walking distance. Dinky creek and the waterfall was very enjoyable and not too far away. Highly recommend!

Let me start by saying this:
I rarely ever write Unilocal reviews.
This campground, at least site 18, is wonderful.
The restrooms are clean, and the sites well maintained.
I came here with my wife and daughter for the fourth of July.
I had a fantastic time. 18 is not shady at all from 12 to about 4pm, but you can beat the heat at the lake.
I recommend going to camp Edison for a great spot, but this was a busy weekend and lots of people populated the dorabelle beach.
Anyway… I had a great time here.
Great family campground.

This is great!!! The hosts are friendly, the area is beautiful and a cool way to beat the valley heat. The place is in great shape. Very clean, just be sure to follow the rules or there will be fines assessed.

About 1hr to the camp site. We paid $ 5for picnic. We parked near a restroom and followed a path to the lake. We swam and ate… ate. No fish to catch… not even minos. Two mallets were hanging out around us.
I want to camp out here. So far the best place and clean.

The campground just reopened this July 2014 and we were there for the long weekend.
1. Good for family camping
2. Bathrooms are pit toilets but maintained clean (unlike the older reviews), but would recommend to take air freshner to use during heavily used timing.
3. Shaver lake access where kids can play in the water
4. Near by stores

5 stars for the hosts — Laura & husband (1 set), Roberta & husband (2^nd set). The hosts were constantly scooting around on their carts, checking sites, bathrooms, etc. They were friendly and helpful. Always around to answer questions. The sites were all neatly raked I noticed too. I also observed them going around picking up bits of trash that were strewn about from careless people. Wood was 1 bundle for $ 8 or 2 for $ 15.
3 – 4 stars for the location. Shaver Lake is pleasant. Warm water. Good weather. I don’t get why people can swim in the water and have motor boats polluting up the place, yet dogs are not supposed to go in the water.
1– star– bathrooms. YUCK. The name should be changed to ‘Dora-​smell’– ancient pit toilets that despite the hosts keeping them stocked and tidy were SMELLY!!! Flies, and meat bees abound. Plus they are tiny and small, just enough room to walk, in and turn around. SPIDERS! Ewwwwe there were these freaky daddy long leg spiders that were attracted to the light. They were all over the tent and in the bathrooms. Basically if you had light on, within minutes a ton of daddy longlegs would crawling towards it. Was it spider breeding season? I don’t know, but tons of those giant daddy longlegs. Thank goodness they were harmless– but still EWWWE!!!
The good news is that Dorabelle is closed soon (2013) for revamping. I am hoping they put in new ADA vault toilets and even flush toilets if possible. We unfortunately had site #51. A fully exposed smallish site, the fire pit was about 6 feet from the road. Pics look fine on Reserve America, however is right next to site 50 and when the site 50 people are there you get the view of their cars parked directly next to the table.
Anyway, I’d go back in the future if the toilet situation changed.

This place definitely deserves a five star. I’ve been camping to many places in my life and this was one of the best and its only 21 $ a night. what a deal! If you love being nestled in the pine trees and swimming in the lake this is defiantly the place for you! There are 68 sites both tent and RV. All are non electric sites. Tent site very spacious, lots of room. I thought I’d write a review since I feel the others did not give this place a fair review. The owners of the place are an elderly couple. They are the nicest, friendliest people you will ever meet. Love them! Every time they passed by our campsite they would send us a friendly wave and smile. Also they were very helpful. My friends and I often went up the range station where they were at and asked questions. As we left they always said «if you have anymore questions we would be more then happy to answer them». The owners here didn’t hesitate one minute to make sure we were satisfied with our stay here!
Other reviews said this place was loud and not that quite. I beg to differ. My stay here was very peaceful and quit and it was June. The quit hours are at 10pm. If someone is loud here you can go to the ranger station and complain and they will take care of the noise. However one night hearing a few young people being loud after the hours, for the most part I often would hear nothing but the birds chirping in the trees. Most peaceful place I been to so far, very relaxing.
One thing I love about this place is that if you go up the road they have a small town that has everything you could ever need! They have a market, hardware store, a few small, restaurants food mart/​gas station, gift shops. They also have a cute little café called Blue Sky Café where you can get really great blended drinks such as what you find at Starbucks. Also have free wifi. Great way to start off your day! There is even a pizza place that you can call and have them deliver the pizza to your camp site!
Some things to do here are swimming, the lake is very easy access. If You have a boat you can ride it around the lake. There are several hiking trails with beautiful views at the top. If your looking for fun. Just 2 – 3 miles down the road is Shaver Lake Water Sports where you can go boating, canoeing, paddle boating, jet skiing, kids can jump on a water trampoline, etc.
While I stayed at Dorabelle, I talked to a nice women who said she came here three times before and loved everything about this place. She also informed me that more water was in the lake then before and when the lake was low they did a little maintenance and clean up. So the lake looks even more beautiful then it already is! Also they do allow pets. They just need to be on a leash. I love this place and will defiantly go back. Only complaint is they do not have showers.

Dorabelle Campground is basic family camping. If you have a problem with kids and loud neighbors, don’t come. The camp hosts are a very friendly elderly couple, but they are not very good at enforcing camp rules. The obnoxious RV-​ers in the site behind us partied until midnight and nobody came to tell them to be quiet. It was very difficult to go to sleep.
The bathrooms are basic pit toilets which are a bit stinky but aren’t that bad. It would be nice to have some showers but it isn’t a huge deal. Only a few campsites have lake views but those are booked up quickly. The normal sites are not very spacious and you can see all of your neighbors really easily. There are TONS of kids and their parents let them run through your campground. We were eating dinner and about four children ran through our site and screamed at our dog (who wasn’t doing anything). It can get a little old.
I have to give this campsite some credit though. The town of Shaver Lake is really close by and is great if you forget something. On our last night we were to lazy to make food so we picked up a yummy pizza from Shaver Lake Pizza. In the morning when nobody is awake it is really nice to walk around the campsite and explore. You can hear the coyotes yipping!
Overall, the camp hosts could be a little better at keeping people in line but they are so nice, it wasn’t that much of a problem for me. The close proximity to the lake and the town is great. We took a day trip up to Huntington Lake and saw the Regatta, which was great! If you have a big family this place is definitely kid friendly, though if I go again I will probably stay at a site in Huntington Lake.

My kids and I stayed here overnight on a Saturday in the beginning of July 2007.
There are 68 sites (many able to accomodate an RV or trailer w/​o hookups) with Shaver Lake within varying walking distances. On weekends at least, there is a 2 night stay minimum (we paid for 2 nights for our 1 night stay). Sites are $ 19 per night. The town of Shaver is a quick ½ mile away. The camp hosts live on site and are very sweet. The hosts had wood for sale when I went ($ 7/​bundle), though I also saw wood for sale in town (@ $ 5/​bundle). They allow leashed dogs. There are dumpsters on-​site for trash. No bear lockers are provided. Every site has a picnic table and a smallish fire ring with an attached grill. This is the only US Forest Service run campsite at Shaver Lake.
Though there are plenty of trees, there is zero privacy between sites. Being the middle of summer, it was also jam packed, as in we were lucky to be able to get the last site available for that day and believe me, everyone had shown up to camp.
A good number of the other campers were having a very loud, very jovial time starting likely from before we arrived (about 5 p.m.) to very late into the night, making it hard for my family to get sleep.
Whoever was in our site before us left a bit of a mess, which we cleaned up. The bathrooms were your basic pit toilets, which I don’t mind, but these for whatever reason seemed to have a worse than usual fly problem. Our fire ring was filled very nearly to the brim with ash so that I actually felt the need to dig out a pit in the ash in the middle, banking the moved ash on the sides as much as I could without spilling over, to have a fire.
On the bright side, our site was right up against a gigantic rock hill my kids climbed over and over again, and we were treated to a visit by a leaf-​rustling fat frog after dark (so cute!).
I won’t be staying here again if I can avoid it — it’s not my kind of car camping place. If you need somewhere to go in the area though, it’s not hard to find, and I’ve actually been to worse. :)