Best Campgrounds near Mount Vernon, 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.

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.

The each campsite is nice and private--I was lucky enough to get a site on the lake for my stay! The shower houses/restrooms are amazing--one big open room with a large shower, toilet, sink, bench, and towel rack. The only downside is you have to press the button for the shower to run, and it's only a few seconds each push, so you're constantly pressing a button as you're mid scrubbing. But hey--after a long day of hiking or swimming, that's no big deal!

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!

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.

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

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.

Stopped in to try and camp here, all the spots were taken.  There were even people camping in their rooftop tents.

Sites that I saw looked great, trails need some maintenance though, and some of the sites need clean up.

The Road is rough, but with care you can get there, just go slow.

There are pit toilets, but no running water or electricity.

All of the sites are walk-in sites.

Bussy place!

Stayed 5 nights mid August 23.

stayed on primitive sites along Ellis river. very quiet and peaceful.

As most campers know last summer was about as wet as it gets so

mosquito population was a little bothersome. Camp fire wood was also 

very damp. On the one night we saw clear sky I was amazed how a dark sky

looks being from Boston area. we got chased out by rain a day early.

Fast forward to 2024 with reservations for the same site for a week in mid July

 taking advantage of free day offer for 7 night stay. Bring my 8" HD celestron this time.

 Hoping for some clear night sky for some awesome seeing.

oh ya Verizon worked well for me and they do have WIFI although weak in this area.

A beautiful location!

We stayed 4 nights and everything was perfect. Staff are very helpful and nice. The store had everything we needed. The surrounding area has some much to explore