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About
Mount Desert Campground
Mount Desert Campground is located in the heart of world famous Mount Desert Island. Just minutes from Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Spend your day sightseeing and shopping around the many local towns, rent a bike, sail on a schooner, go rock climbing in Acadia, or spend your afternoon at Sand Beach. Explore the extraordinary shopping and dining opportunities in Northeast Harbor or Southwest Harbor. You can even rent a kayak right here at the campground and explore the beautiful Somes Sound.
The Mount Desert Campground was conceived and created by Marie and Arnold Allen in 1958. The Allen's goal was to maintain a quiet, clean, tenting campground where families could come to relax, enjoy the natural beauty, and make memories. For the next 25 years, the Allens enjoyed a very loyal following of campers who returned here year after year.
In early 1984, the Allens sold the campground to one of those long time campers of almost 20 years, the Craigheads. Now, all these years later, we Craigheads strive to maintain the very best campground we can- so the children of those long time campers from years past can, in turn, make new memories with their kids.
We do not offer lots of frills and gimmicks but we do provide the quietest campground with the cleanest, most up to date facilities anywhere. We look forward to welcoming you to the Mount Desert Campground and we will do our utmost to make your stay a pleasant one.
On any given year, we do not allow dogs starting the Saturday on or before July 2 until Friday morning of Labor Day weekend. We certainly do allow dogs when the season is quieter during the months of May, June, September and October.
We offer free Wi-Fi at the Gathering Place on the grounds.
Operator
Private
Access
Drive In
Boat In
Contact
Location
Mount Desert Campground
is located in
Maine
Directions
Mount Desert Campground is located in the heart of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park on Route 198. When you reach the entrance to Mount Desert Island, stay to the right side of the fork (Rt. 102/198) and continue for 5 miles. You will come to a set of lights at the junction of Rt. 102 and Rt. 198. Take a left onto Rt. 198 aka "Sound Drive," continue for half a mile and you will see our sign on the right.
8 miles from Bar Harbor
5 miles from Northeast Harbor
5 miles from Southwest Harbor
18 Reviews of Mount Desert Campground
Just as AMAZING as Acadia National Park
This campground was just as beautiful and spectacular as the actual Acadia National Park (which is very close by). We tent camped here and our site was beautiful, as well as secluded from others nearby. Each site had its own privacy - that was our favorite part - you felt like it was just you and nature, but in reality you were surrounded by people. The view over the lake was unexplainable. Facilities were clean. All around an amazing campground!!
Perfect campground for exploring Acadia and Bar Habor!
My husband and I stayed here in June 2018 in our popup. We had some trouble manuvering our camper into our spot because of the one way roads through the campground, but once we were in it was a perfectly cozy and private site! Bathhouses were nice and clean. Overall we loved our stay and can't wait to come back!
Great campground!
The location of this campground is perfect for a camping trip to see one of America’s most beautiful parks. Right outside the northern part of the park, you can easily get into the park without being right in the middle of the park where more people are. You have access to the water, the campsites are smaller but give you a great feeling of being in the woods. Showers and bathrooms are great too!
Great Campground
Very nice campsites, bathrooms and showers were very clean and easily accessible. Friendly and helpful staff. Only about 10 minutes from Acadia National Park and many great lobster shacks nearby. Would definitely stay again. Only thing was tent sites were a bit pricey.
Woodsy camping in a van
We loved our woodsy site just a few hundred feet from the lake. Bathrooms were well maintained & the friendliest people worked there ready to help with anything you needed.
Great location, setting and rustic campground
Mt. Desert Campground offers a car camping experience that is rustic enough to feel like you are enjoying the outdoors but not too much that you feel like you are roughing it. The location is great for accessibility to adventures to different parts of Mt. Desert Island but also is a great setting at the top of Somes Sound to be okay with just hanging out at the campground for a day. The main gathering spot (aptly named the Gathering) offers a spot to get some tasty treats in the morning and evening as well as wifi. The cold brew coffee in the morning is a nice treat while camping.
The nicest, cleanest campground!
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!
Centrally located to access all of Acadia National Park
A nicely wooded campground. We had electric and water at our site; a simple luxury we're not used to. It's a big campground with a maze of well marked, one-way roads. We took advantage of the island shuttle which picked us up right at the campground.
Just Minutes from Acadia
beautiful campground. clean bathhouse. hot showers. ice cream/wifi shack is great place to meet friends.
Camping without the traffic!
Anyone who’s been to Acadia knows there is a bottleneck to get on the island, and it’s really busy with narrow streets and too many cars. sometimes when I just want to camp and not deal with traffic we will camp here, at MDI camping. We tent camp, and Next to the GIGANTIC pool there are backwoods sites, which are perfect for us because it’s furthest from the road and you barely hear the cars, AND it feels like you’re in the wilderness but within walking distance to bathrooms and running water.
