Best Campgrounds near Skowhegan, 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.

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 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 main camping area has about 10 long narrow sites that have large rocks bordering each site. Each site is bordered by the road. There is a single vaulted toilet.

The paved area of the road ends just past the campground. Lots of people drive just past the pavement and then they turn around.

Across the road from the campground is a beautiful river. The sound of the river put us to sleep and greeted us the next morning.

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 location is Beautiful, but it comes at the cost of privacy.  When I first discovered this spot, it wasn't an official campsite, people just came here to swim and there was a fire ring. That was over 20yrs ago.

There are 4 sites, 3 have no separation between them, 1 is at the entrance, all are on the access road with 0 privacy.  This area is overused, and it shows, sites are warn in and if there was room relocating fire pits and allowing some nature to come back would be nice.  I managed to tuck myself into a private alcove of trees on the #1 site, but still was in full view of headlights and people driving in to see if there was space.  The site I had was big enough that I shared it with a couple that had a small child, and they had their own section. 

There are no service, no water, no electricity, no to little cell coverage.  There is one pit toilet.  

The access road in is rough, not for normal street cars.

Did I mention lack of privacy?

See pics.

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!

Great place to stop for a swim, but camping is not allowed here.

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

Round barn campsites offers a dozen or so tent sites with two big group sites. It will pretty consistently have some campers, but I've never seen all the sites full before. It is right next to the stafford brook trail to hike to the top of Bigelow and you can easily hike from your campsite to the top of the mountain and back within a day. Multiple sites including both group sites are right on the water and there is a nice beach area big enough to accomodate however many people you bring. The best tent site is on the island just offshore accessible by sandbar which is usually just knee deep. The cove makes for safe swimming away from the wind and waves offshore. Great secluded spot where you won't feel crowded like at Baxter or Grafton notch areas.

Camden Hills state park is in a great spot, close to town and has a waterfront access. If you have a bigger rv you’ll want to stay in the field sites in the front of the park. The higher you go the better for tenting it is as it gets more forested.

Nice state campground with tons of hiking trails right from the campground. We stayed in a non-hookup site for $38/night- very expensive but we wanted to stay in the area and enjoy the hiking trails. Most sites don’t have enough sun for solar, and those that do, are FHU sites. Go figure. We were in site #65, recommended to us by the ranger as having the most sun for our panels. 65 was nice because it was set apart from other sites, and kind of enclosed so it was nice for the dogs. But it’s in direct view of the dump station so if that bothers you don’t pick this site! 

The drive up Mt Battie Rd was worth it for the views at the top. RVs are ok to drive on this road, and there’s RV parking at the top. 

Showers are free, hot, and good pressure, but they are the creepiest campground showers, rusty and dark. Dump station and potable water are available. 

There’s a little free library book exchange at the ranger station at the entrance. Verizon service was usable but very weak, ATT was better, and fine with the weboost. The campground offers wifi at $3 per day per connection, but we didn’t use it.