Arcadia National - Maine

[mwilliamsmd]

Looking to head to Arcadia National this summer. Anyone have recommendations for places to stay?

[Phoenix]

Last fall (2015), we stayed here for about a week, just before it closed for the season. Beautiful campground; highly recommended!

Acadia National Park - Schoodic Woods Campground
Winter Harbor, ME
207-288-1300

GPS: 44° 22.889'N 68° 4.116'W

Office, facilities, roads, etc. are all brand new, as of September 2015. New, paved interior roads with level, 100' long, gravel pull-throughs (long enough for two buses or several trailers), with picnic tables and fire pits. Free firewood available when we visited in early October 2015. Lots of mature trees provide privacy in most sites. RV loops have electric, and some have water. No sewer hookup. Flush toilets, but no showers; dump station.

Good OTA TV signal, with all major broadcast networks (from Bangor), except NBC. Weak, but usable, cellphone and mobile broadband signals. However, Internet connection speed is "dial-up" only, which is extremely slow. EVDO and 4G signals seem to be present, but too weak to transmit, even with external antenna on mast. (Cellular-frequency amplifier might help.) Campground WiFi appears to be available, but only 1-bar. We did NOT use it, due to security concerns.

Blackwoods Campground is another campground inside Acadia National Park, 5 miles south of Bar Harbor.

Note: A land donation in September 2015 increased the size of Acadia National Park on the Schoodic Peninsula from about 10-15% to almost 75% of the total area (up to the town of Gouldsboro), which allowed the addition of this campground and miles of paved roads, scenic pull-outs and biking/hiking trails, making this a premier National Park to visit on the east coast. Previously, Acadia NP was composed mostly of several large areas to the southwest of Bar Harbor.

Rate: $40, water & electric; $25 w/Senior Pass.

NPS description:

Schoodic Woods Campground - Located on the Schoodic Peninsula, this campground is 3 miles southeast of Winter Harbor. First opened in 2015 from September until Columbus Day (10/12/15). After 2016, it will be open from late May until Columbus Day. The entire campground was first come, first served in 2015. Reservations for following years are highly recommended.

Fee: $22 walk-in tent sites, $30 drive up tent/small RV, $36 RV electric only sites, $40 RV electric & water. Senior Pass = $25/night water & electric (per TripAdvisor.com).

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We did NOT stay here, as it was full:

Acadia National Park - Blackwoods Campground
State Route 3
Bar Harbor, ME 04660
270-288-3274

GPS: 44° 18.610'N 68° 12.236'W

Website: http://www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/camping.htm

Reviews:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...and_Maine.html

http://www.campgroundreviews.com/regions...nps-campground

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We did NOT stay here, as it had already closed for the season:

Bar Harbor / Oceanside KOA Campground
136 County Rd
Bar Harbor, ME 04609
(207) 288-3520

GPS: 44° 25.182'N 68° 21.911'W

[lsbrodsky]

We stayed a week at the KOA. I do not recommend it. Most of the spaces are too close together resulting in an expensive RV parking lot. True there are a few nice spaces but unless you know which ones, it is not worth it. Nevertheless, the location was ideal for what we wanted to do.
Larry

[dznf0g]

Out of curiosity, where does the word ARcadia come from? I hear many, many people, through my work call the GMC Acadia (named after the Park) ARcadia.

Is it the land of game arcades?

"Arcadia (Greek: Αρκαδία, Arkadía) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan. In European Renaissance arts, Arcadia was celebrated as an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness." from Wikipedia

[jpons]

I live about an hour way from Acadia and spend quite a bit of time there.

On the main part of Acadia, the best campground, in my opinion, is blackwoods, this is an NPS campground with no hookups, but offers the most privacy in a wooded settings.

The best private campground, again in my opinion, is the Bar Harbor campground, this campground has some great wooded sites with hookups, some sites with ocean views, some open sites, and some "parking lot" sites, in other words something for everyone. They are also the closest private campground to the park and to downtown Bar Harbor. The biggest disadvantage of this park is that they do NOT take reservations and do not take credit cards.

The schoodic campground is brand new and looks fantastic, and we are planning on going there this year. But keep in mind that this is on the Schoodic side of the park NOT near the main part of the park and what most people associate with Acadia. This is about 1.5 hours drive from Bar Harbor and Cadiallac Mountain. I love the Schoodic penninsula and make it there a couple of times a year and well worth a visit, but please be aware that this is not the Acadia most people want to see.

Hope this helps.

-J


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[FollySteve]

Thanks for the local knowledge Jpons. We are planning a visit to Acadia this spring and are planning on staying at Bar Harbor Campground. We prefer park campgrounds and would rather stay inside the park but, since we are planning to stay a full week we are opting for the convenience of full hookups.

We are planning to arrive on Memorial Day (opening day for the campground). Do you expect that we will have any problems securing a good site that early in the season? Also, I have read that black flys can be bad in the spring but probably earlier in May. Any thoughts you can provide about conditions at that time of year would be greatly appreciated.

Steve

[jpons]

You should not have any problems that early in the season, the campground will be mostly empty.

May weather can be unpredictable, and you may encounter some nasty insects, however if you stick near the coast you will be ok, the worst is inland.

I would be ready for both warm and cold weather, as you may experience both within hours of each other. However the big advantage of coming that early is that you will have the park almost to yourself!

-J

Originally Posted by FollySteve

Thanks for the local knowledge Jpons. We are planning a visit to Acadia this spring and are planning on staying at Bar Harbor Campground. We prefer park campgrounds and would rather stay inside the park but, since we are planning to stay a full week we are opting for the convenience of full hookups.

We are planning to arrive on Memorial Day (opening day for the campground). Do you expect that we will have any problems securing a good site that early in the season? Also, I have read that black flys can be bad in the spring but probably earlier in May. Any thoughts you can provide about conditions at that time of year would be greatly appreciated.

Steve

Sent from my iPad using Airstream Forums

[malinois38]

Another vote for Bar Harbor Campground! Initially went to KOA, but walked away after seeing site. Stayed at Bar Harbor Campground last June and have nothing but good things to report. Campground is close to Acadia entrance, close to downtown, staff was pleasant, 7 sites with spectacular ocean view and lobster delivery to your site! What more do you want

[moparjohn]

I do stay at the KOA Oceanside, I have a favorite spot, an Oceanside spot with great views of the west sunset. The main camp is rather crowded and would not stay in the center. I want to check out Bar Harbor CG but no resv or CC is unthinkable. John

[FollySteve]

Greetings from Acadia. If you haven't been, put it on you bucket list. Early June, before it gets crowded.

[Sbb]

Westayed Koa site 371. We were very very licky, there at end of season, spot very secluded, photo in Airstream Life a couple issues ago. I love the new campground area and will stay there next time. I am not big fan of town of Bar Harbor, like the other smaller ones better.

Plan on Jordan Pond, great walk around the pond, and all the spots along the roads. It is beautiful, make sure you catch a sunrise!

[pmclemore]

When we visited, we stayed at Lemoine State Park across Fisherman's Bay from Acadia. Much less traffic.

To visit the rocky shore, we went to the Schoodic Peninsula, which was also less crowded. Of course, you can still daytrip over to Acadia.


Pat