Mount Desert Campground

My family of 4 tent camped at Mount Desert Campground in June ‘24. I woke up at 5am to reserve a site months in advance for the ‘24 camping season. Upon late arrival, we grabbed out site details from the office and made our way through the grounds. It’s made of of a few different camping sections with designated shower/restroom houses. They were all clean, nicely spaced throughout the grounds. And you could use any of them. The showers are coin operated for warm water. Bring quarters! You can definitely shower completely with one session of about 5 minutes (I believe). The entire facility is raised with spacing between the floor slats for air circulation and breeze, which I liked. That saying, don’t drop money or jewelry on the floor as it would be difficult to get.

The sites all had a decent amount of privacy and trees between sites. It felt more comfortable and private than expected! D19 was a premium site with water & electricity. It was awesome. Each site has a picnic table & fire ring.

Sites are not made for large RVs. They can fit smaller camper trailers and pop-ups, but that’s about it. It actually adds to the campground ambience as it keeps things quiet and more of an outdoor camping experience!

The BEST part of this campground for our family was Somes Sound and the floating docks. We purchased a crab bucket with net from the coffee shop one morning for around $10-12. It was well worth it as my kids crab gigged for HOURS off the docks every day! We carefully swam to the small rock island next to the dock and collected sea snails. The water was cold but felt great when hot. Watch out for jelly fish!! We took our chances by swimming around them.

We rented double kayaks from the front office for 2 hours and kayaked Somes Sound - it was beautiful water & amazing exploring! A bit more difficult with the ocean currents vs lake kayaking, so keep that in mind with kids. Wear life vests!

If you want a waterfront campsite - good luck! They let the families book them year over year so it’s hard to get an opening to reserve those sites. But it doesn’t really matter as we didn’t spend time at our site a lot anyway between exploring the NP and being down at the docks.

This campground is beautiful, in a great location and perfect for tent, camper van or very small trailer camping. 

We stayed on two sites due to the availability of the waterfront site we wanted.

The first night we were on site C29. This site was OK, it had water and electric, was level and easy to park a small camper on. The site also had a view of the ocean across the street and down the boat ramp. With that said, the site wasn't as private as others as it was on a corner

The next two nights we stayed on site B7. this site also had water and electric, the site was private and had a tent platform. There was a nice view of the water and direct water frontage, the water access was pretty steep so you probably wouldn't be launching a kayak or swimming from it, but probably could cast a fishing line if you wanted. Most of the waterfront sites can not accommodate a trailer so we lucked out with this site. It appears sites B5 and B6 could also accommodate a small trailer. 

As for the rest of the campground, it was very well maintained, bathrooms and showers were always clean, campers were quiet and respectful. 

The gathering spot is a good place to grab a coffee or pastry, I just wish they had a small camp store for supplies. 

Proximity to the main attractions at the park and Bar Harbor was also great.

We reserved a site with a water view (all the waterfront tent sites were already reserved). The tent platform was nice (they provided the nails for anchoring the tent corners. By using platforms, they have allowed many more tent sites where terrain would have made it impossible. Our site had electric (a potable water standpipe was across the street).

Restrooms were very clean and there was plenty of hot water for the coin operated showers.

Wifi is great at the Gathering Place 24/7. Very intermittent at the tent site—but we’re camping so not an issue. Gathering place had hot coffee and fresh baked goods in the am—but get there early as croissants and scones sold out quickly!

The shuttle was not operating when we were there (June 2021) but once operations return to normal, there is a shuttle to Acadia. The location is great—both to visit the park and for access to Bar Harbor. Camping is so reasonable that we felt eating out for dinner every other night was justifiable, given the cost of hotels in the area.

There is a kayak launch and floating dock. But be very aware of tide schedule!

We had originally booked a week stay here for July 2020, but then … you know.   They rescheduled us for July 2021 and we just got back.  I will first say that getting a site here is like registering for college classes in the 90's or getting Billy Joel tickets:  You have to get up at dawn on the day they release them in January and hope you get into the class you want.  It was wild and absolutely added to the excitement of this campground.  

Overall - it's a terrific campground and we will absolutely be back.  Not at our site though… not at our site… our site was not great.  A10 … it was small… covered in roots and I mean they were everywhere and you felt as if you were going to just trip at any moment.  It also rained our first day and our site flooded (see photo), it was not great at all.  The fire pit was also about 30' away  down a hill, which could be charming but you were just grateful to get down to  there without breaking your ankle on a root.    I know nature happens but with the price you pay for this campground - they should not have a tripping hazard flood zone for a site (#A10).   

Here are the pros / cons (there are way more pros)

Pros

• You are right outside Acadia National Park.   It's amazing - and the hiking trails and lakes / ponds for kayaking are so beautiful, it's bananas. 
• Great, friendly and efficient check-in process.  The office has wood and ice for sale and it's very convenient.   
• There is a spot called 'The Gathering' place that has free wifi and great coffee and treats in the morning as well as ice cream in the evening.  It was nice on rainy day when we didn't feel like making coffee.  
• Bathrooms and showers are clean, well maintained with a rustic cabin charm.  (hot water for shower is $1 [4 quarters] for 5 minutes). 
• Almost all the sites have tent platforms, which is excellent … especially if your site is an uneven, root invested, flooding hell scape (#A10). 
• The campsite is on Sommes Sound so there are incredible water views and kayak / canoe launches. 
• It is, hands down, the most quiet place we have ever camped.   You can hear a bit of traffic from Route 3 where we were (#A10  #evil) but it was not too bad in my opinion. 
• No animals allowed during peak season, which to me is a pro.  I like animals - but not running all over a campground. 

Cons

• There are no dedicated sinks to do your dishes.  I was very surprised by this - as this campground is very expensive and I just assumed they would have them.  I double checked on their website and there is no mention of this that I can find.  It was very disappointing.  We made due - but I feel they should absolutely mention this on their site.  Again - I may just be inept and can't find it but I have now looked a few times.  
• Some sites have water and electric, which is great!  Some have one or the other, which is great!  Some have neither, which is fine.   However, large sections of the the hoses and power cables run along the ground and through sites which is not great at all.   For our site (#A10  #evil  #floodzone) between the roots and the hoses, you felt as if you were auditioning for American Ninja Warrior.

I never thought I would spend 55$ a night for a campsite. There are sites that are more expensive, and sites that are cheaper but I figured why not spend the money to stay right on the water. Even sites that don't sit on the water have a great amount of space and trees. Due to Covid this was all I could find for a planned Acadia trip in the fall. After my stay, I can honestly say it was worth the cost and I would highly recommend the campground. 

Since the campground sits among the rocky and mountainous coast line, they have spent the time and money building leveled platforms for all the sites. Without the platforms, the campsites would be quite miserable. I have a hard time believing any other campgrounds in the area have invested so much to make their land so comfortable for their guests. 

The bathrooms are amazing. Built with wood and lots of ventilation, the open air prevents them from getting musty or moldy. Bathrooms have outlets (or at least the women's do). They are very clean and well kept. 

They sell firewood, ice, and have a coffee shop. Brilliantly, you get whatever you need and they simply use your campsite as a "tab". Usually they rent kayaks as well but this was on hold this year due to covid. 

Its a great location relative to Acadia. It's only about 15 minutes to popular areas of the park (Cadillac mountain, Jordan pond, etc.). Bar Harbor is also easily accessible. The campground is equally convenient to get to the less popular areas of the park such as the Schoodic region or Bass Head Island.

Just spent a week here and we can not say enough good things about it. I’ll start with the staff. They were exceptional in every way. Very friendly, including the children who seemed to be working there, and very responsive to any questions we had. The facilities were immaculate. Cleanest and most well designed bathrooms of any campsite we’ve been to, and we’ve been to a lot. The sites are all very private and secluded and the quiet hours were well observed. Due to our late booking we ended up at site C44. I was a little worried I would be disappointed not being at one of the waterfront/water view site but once we arrived we soon realized that every site at this campground is special in its own way. With that said, we will try for one of the waterfront sites next year but don’t be disappointed if they are not available. Even though this campground is not directly in Acadia you are no more than a 15min drive to any of the sites in the park. We were able to explore the park by day and enjoy the campgrounds at night. Our only regret is that we didn’t have more time to spend at the campground. The kids loved crabbing of the floating dock and riding bikes around the campgrounds all day. Bikes are a must. If you’re planning a visit to Acadia (which is well worth a visit) make Mount Desert Campground your home base. You won’t be sorry. Oh I almost forgot the amazing local ice cream served nightly at the meeting place. Don’t miss it.

Our neighbors recommended this campground to us, and it did not disappoint. Booking online was easy, check- in was smooth. We chose a campsite with a platform on which to put our tent. Each campground includes a fire pit and picnic table. Our site was right next to a potable water spigot, and within easy walking distance to a bathroom building which includes full plumbing and metered showers (4 quarters for 5 minutes). The Gathering Place was where we went when we needed wifi access and Gifford's of Maine ice cream. At night you could find teens hanging there to check their social feeds. The Free Island Explorer bus also makes stops at the campground if you want to access different parts of Acadia or go into Bar Harbor without worrying about finding parking. We loved it here and definitely plan to return. Next time we're going to try to get one of the campsites on the water… those are prime locations! We highly recommend Mount Desert (pronounced the French way: dessert) Campground. Best camping experience we've ever had!