Best Campgrounds near Machias, ME

Lamoine State Park is a great option if you want to be close to Acadia but away from the crowds.

There are both tent and rv sites, which are intermingled in the campground. There is a bath house with showers and flush toilets. The toilet area was clean and was maintained on a regular basis. There are multiple vault toilets around the campground.

The sites are in rows, from the top of the campground down to the water. Sites at the top are grassier with more sun, and the sites near the water have more shade. Many sites are not flat and require significant leveling if in an rv. Some sites have more buffer than others, but in general I would not say that there is great privacy between sites.
The sites on the water all have beautiful views. There is no power/sewer/water at any of the sites. There are water faucets around the campground, and a dump station near the entrance.

The park has a day use area and a public boat launch. You could launch a kayak from the park. The day use are is lovely, as is the launch area. The staff at the park were friendly and helpful.

You are about 30 minutes to Acadia, 20 to Ellsworth and 30 to Blue Hill. It is a convenient location that is outside of the crowds. The Lamoine Beach is a 5 minute drive away and is a nice place to walk.

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.

General: 31 RV sites with w/e plus six tent sites with no hookups. 

Site Quality: Our site was on grass and level enough that we could make it work without much difficulty. Sites 12A and 12B are the best IMO as they have an unobstructed view of the bay and more space between them than other sites. The lettered tent sites are also good, IMO, especially A, E, and F. Sites 1-29 are very close together with no physical separation between them in typical RV park fashion. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring, however, sites 1-4 share a fire ring, making it a good choice for people traveling together 

Bath/Shower house: Clean. Toilet stalls are a bit tight. The shower was also a little tight. One stall had plenty of hooks, but I could not get the faucets to work; the other stall only had one hook, but I could get the faucets to work! Plenty of hot water. 

Activities/Amenities: Dishwashing sink, laundry (three washers/three dryers, $1.50 each) Free WiFi, and morning coffee on the porch. Firewood and ice are available for purchase for a reasonable amount (after-hours wood is available on the honor system). You can sign up in the office for a lobster set-up which includes a pot, burner, and propane to cook lobsters, clams, or crabs at your site. There are no activities at the campground, but you are encouraged to explore the town of Lubec, especially the West Quoddy lighthouse at sunrise. In the afternoon, we enjoyed watching the tide come in and out in the bay and I could do yoga on the grassy area. There was also a shared swing where you can enjoy the tide and sunsets.

Cindy and her husband manage this campground, and we received a hearty welcome from Cindy when we checked in. After we paid (Cash or check only, no credit cards), she gave us the lowdown on what we should see and do in the small town of Lubec, especially the West Quoddy house lighthouse (which despite its name, is the easternmost point where you can see the sunrise in the US). Very quiet campground that was about half full when we were there. And yes, if the weather cooperates, the sunsets are beautiful.

Cobscook State Park is beautiful. The park is big, and many sites are very far apart - we had almost complete privacy.  There are both reservable and non reservable sites.  Some sites have Adirondack shelters.  All sites have picnic tables and fire pits.  The majority of the tent sites and small rv sites, and some larger rv sites, are on the water.   We stayed at 2 different sites - a waterfront site and non waterfront - and both were scenic and private.   There is no water/electric/power at any site.  There are water stations around the park, as well as a bath house and dump station.  The park rangers are friendly and helpful. There is a lot of wildlife and waterlife - we saw many seals and cormorants in the water, as well as a few eagles.  You can launch a kayak from your campsite, or from the large  dock/boat launch area in the park.  Kayaking should be done with prior research to ensure familiarity with the tide changes (which are up to 20 ft) and currents, which are strong and dangerous in certain areas of Cobscook Bay.   There is a great map published by Cobscook Shores that shows recommended kayak areas and tide access.  It includes the launch that is in the park.  https://cobscookshores.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/CS-System-Map.pdf  

 There are also a few open areas for picnicking or just relaxing, as well as a play area for kids.  There are a few nice, relatively short and easy  hiking trails that run through the park.  One of the trails is right at the entrance, so you can park there if needed. For more advanced hiking, the Cutler Preserve land, Boot Head, and Quoddy Head are all nearby and offer incredible hikes of varying distances, up to 10 miles.  Quoddy Head also has a lighthouse that is a popular attraction .

We spent 3 nights in Acadia National Park. Our first night was at the Blackwoods Campground and the last 2 were at the Schoodic Woods Campground. This review is for Schoodic Woods. 

Before visiting Acadia I didn't realize that the 2 areas of Acadia National Park are pretty far from each other. Blackwoods Campground is on Mount Desert Island and is only about a 10 minute drive to Bar Harbor whereas Schoodic Woods Campground is on the Schoodic Peninsula and is closer to an hour away. I found Schoodic Woods to be more peaceful and more spaced out than Blackwoods. It felt further removed from the usual action of a national park. The sites were large and private. We stayed in a long, pull through site which I honestly tend to avoid because they sometimes feel less private but that was definitely not the case here. Our site had electricity, water hook ups and a fire ring. 

The bathroom (no showers) was probably the nicest and cleanest I've ever been to at a campground. 

There are several hiking paths from the campground including one that takes you down to the bay which is about a mile away. The Schoodic Peninsula has a ring road which you can drive around and we stopped at Schoodic Point which was spectacular- huge waves crashing against the rocks. The small town of Winter Harbor is also only about a 5 minute drive from the campground. 

All in all, I really loved this campground. We had a very peaceful time!