Booking Blackwoods, Seawall and Schoodic Woods Campsites

The campground offices can't book a site for you, and there is no way to reserve in person on arrival. Acadia allows no backcountry camping or overnight parking, so a reserved site is the only way to camp in the park. Set up a Recreation.gov account before your booking day, or use the park's official apps to check real-time availability and reserve from a phone or tablet.

Most sites open through a six-month advance release. At all three campgrounds, ninety percent of campsites become available six months ahead, released on the first of each month at ten in the morning. For an arrival on May 20, for example, that first release opens on the first day of the month six months earlier. The other ten percent open on a rolling basis at ten in the morning, fourteen days before your arrival date, so the same May 20 trip gets a second chance on May 6.

The two Mount Desert Island campgrounds sit on opposite sides of the island. Blackwoods is on the east side, about five miles south of Bar Harbor on Route 3, close to popular stops along the Park Loop Road. Seawall is on the west side, near the coastline. Island Explorer shuttle buses stop at the campgrounds as well as carriage road entrances and many trailheads.

Schoodic Woods is on the Schoodic Peninsula, the only part of Acadia on the mainland, about an hour and fifteen minutes by car from Bar Harbor. Campers check in at the Schoodic Woods Ranger Station, and the campground includes group sites and hike-in sites where you park and walk to your spot. Bike trails leave straight from the campground, covering 8.3 miles of broad gravel that begins gently and turns steep near Frasier Point.