Best Campgrounds near Monmouth, ME

Camden Hills State park is centrally located, just at the edge of downtown Camden.  It provides a great home base for hiking, biking, kayaking and exploring the Camden/Rockland area.  

The park has around 100 sites that are categorized by size, and allows rvs and tents.  There are no tent specific sites, and a tent camper could choose a large rv site. Each site has a picnic table and fireplace.  Most spots are wooded, but there  are 8  non wooded, open grassy sites at the front of the park, which have little shade.   About half of the sites have water and electric.  There is a bathhouse, multiple water stations and a dump station.  The park sits on both sides of Rt. 1, and the bottom side is more of a day use area with a pavilion and walking trails and sits on the water.   The bottom part does not, however, have true water access for swimming or kayaking.  The closest place for this the Camden City Park, which is 2.5 miles away, and is a great place to launch a kayak.  Rockport Marine Park at Rockport Harbor is another - it has easy kayak launch access and a very very small beach, which is mostly used for kids to splash around in the water.  The top portion of the park, where all the campsites are, has direct access to Mount Megunticook, and Mount Battie, and offers easy to advanced hikes.  It’s great to be able to do numerous hikes without having to leave the park.  

We liked our site, 61, because it was open, grassy and level, had water and electric and was reservable.  The park rangers were very friendly.  There is a charge for Wi-Fi, and cell service is good enough.  

There are many quality  restaurants in the Camden, Rockland, Rockport area, as well as good bakeries and coffee shops.  The Camden Farmers market is right downtown.  You are less than 10 minutes from central Camden, and 20 minutes to Rockland.

Have stayed at all upper sites. Beautiful serene and quiet. Site 4 and 5 get some cell service. Upper two top sites beware of bears especially the right side site. Game trail heaven. Amazing little larry brook. Great flat sites except top two. Highly recommend

General: Small (15-site) campground near Grafton Notch State Park (but not IN the park). No hookups. Not all will agree with me, but I am glad no generators are allowed.

Site Quality: Sites are gravel, level, and have enough trees to afford privacy between sites. 

Bath/Shower House: It is immaculately clean. Each gender has two stalls and one ADA-accessible shower. The shower has nice warm water and a great flow. There is also a very clean vault toilet. 

Activities/Amenities: Horseshoes and cornhole in the lawn area in the center. Information on many local hikes. Rocky beach has tables where you can sit and relax. There are two dishwashing sinks, potable water, and a dump station. 

What makes this campground shine is the owner, Mo. We’ve stayed in many campgrounds but hands down, Mo takes more pride in her campground than any other we’ve been in. Seasonal decorations, flower pots, and Mo is an on-site presence to answer questions, engage in conversation, and make sure the sites and all facilities are pristine. We stayed here five years ago and look forward to hopefully staying again in the future. About the only thing I can find fault with is the proximity to the road but even at that, road noise is minimal.

I really like that the campground has easy access to the hiking trails. Clean bathroom facilities and the free showers were nice and hot. Unfortunately, you can hear quite a bit of road noise.

We pulled in around 7:30 pm on a Sunday night and there were plenty of open spots. We took a huge one. Found a fairly flat area and stayed for the night.

Just enough t-mobile / starlink signal to watch streaming and message, but wouldn't be enough for remote work so we went to the White Mountain National Forest Picnic area off the main road about 5 minutes away and had great signal

The campground was nice and quiet during our stay, but the pit toilets near our campsite were quite rough--super smelly and an endless amount of flies flying out of the toilet.

The staff was very nice and helpful during our stay. There are a variety of sites to choose from and a bunch of things to do around the campground. The campground store also had a good supply of items, too. It sounds like the new owners are making improvements around the campground, so I'm excited to see how it comes along if I'm in the area again in the future!

Advertising a private beach that belongs to a private neighborhood. Sent us into a private neighborhood to a beach that's not their property.

Stayed 5 nights with family on the next sight, great place for kids with lots of variety, animals and low traffic back roads for bike riding. Reserve early if you want hookups.

The reception at this campground is very friendly. Pitches are fairly spacious, but still a bit close together. Garbage is picked up in the morning, which is very nice.

The sanitary facilities are quite outdated and, in addition, could definitely be a bit cleaner.

The pool is clean, but everything around it also looks very outdated and worn.

We had a pleasant time here and would definitely recommend this place for a few days.

Nice campground and nice lake , lots of activities for the kids. Sites are cramped and close together.

We stayed for 3 nights in late July.   This adult only campground is peaceful and quiet, with the sounds of birds and the trees being the main thing you hear - it is quite relaxing.   It has both tent and rv sites, some with full hookup and some with power and water only.  The trees are quite tall and create a lovely canopy overhead.   There is some road traffic noise, but it’s minimal.  In general, the sites are pretty close together and do not have great buffers.  The sites that face the marsh are the best sites - they have some grass and lovely views.  We were in site 5, which faces the woods and was dirt.  It had a slight bump in it which made hooking and unhooking our travel trailer a little difficult.   The bathrooms were very clean.  There is a small camp store that sells wood.   The people we met who worked at the camp were friendly and helpful. There are a few very short walking paths in the campground , but it is 1.3 miles  of the Eastern Trail, a multi use gravel path which is a better place to walk, bike, or run.  It is within a mile of the Audubon center office, where you can either put in your own kayak/canoe or rent one.    In theory, you can launch a kayak from the campground, but I would not recommend it.  There is a culvert under Rt 9 that you need to pass under which is dangerous - the Audubon Center informed us that people have flipped in the culvert due to the current, and that there are obstructions under water that one individual got caught on.

There are no sewer hookups(which is fine) but you are only allowed ONE use at dump station upon leaving the campground. I arrived with a 1/3 tanks and wanted to dump on way into park because I was staying 3 days/nights and they said ok but you can’t dump on the way out(seriously?). I asked if I could pay for a second dump and it was$30. I’ll never go back.

This is my 2nd year returning to lone mountain river front camping in Andover Maine. The peace and tranquility here is tough to beat. We reserved a river front site which are primitive, meaning no hook ups of any kind. Also reserved a water/electric site. Best of all wide open field with incredible dark sky seeing. Full moon this year. Oh well. Owners here are super friendly and keep the property in terrific shape. Bathrooms / showers very well maintained . The location gives you mountain weather which can be changeable, be prepared & check forecast. Great WiFi in RV sites. Not so much on river. Site has a small store. Ice, wood ect. There is a general store in Andover called Mills general store. All in one stop. Food beverage gas fish stuff. You name it it there. The web site is well put together and easy to navigate. Prices are comparable to going rates.