Mt Desert Narrows Camping Resort

Stayed for four nights in early June at Mt Desert Narrows near Bar Harbor.

The campground is at the entrance to Mt Desert Island. It overlooks a pretty bay where you can watch clammers dig during low tides. It's not a swimming beach, as far as I could tell, but the sunsets over the water are spectacular.

I typically steer clear of Encore Resorts because they are overpriced and I think it's absurd they charge a resort fee for amenities that are standard at other campgrounds. But save for staying at one of the National Park campgrounds on the island, this park is the best deal if booked with Passport America. My price above reflects the Passport America price.

I have a small rig so they first squeezed me into tiny and unmaintained 98B. It was too muddy to level my van, had no picnic table, and the fire ring looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. The next morning I went in to ask for a change and they put me in site 81, which is a perfect site. Excellent view, level grass pad, no rigs between you and the water. Little shade, though.

The campground itself is fine. I imagine it's packed during the summer (it was busy, though not packed, in mid-June before school got out). The whole park needs better maintenance and cleaning. But the showers are hot (really hot), the views are great, and you're a short drive to all the attractions of Bar Harbor and Acadia.

This is a strictly average campground on Mount Desert Island. The best thing going for it is it's location very near the entrance to the island. That makes it easy for big rigs to get to.

We had reservations through Passport America (the rate reflects that). That means we were to have a "standard" site for our 40 foot rig. The site assigned to us would have just fit us in length, but we were too tall for it. I give the staff credit for recognizing that upfront and they gave us a bigger site that should have cost us more but didn't.

The campground looks a little run down. The sites are grassy and some trees. Roads are gravel. There are stumps and large rocks all over the place, so you have to be careful when pulling onto and out of your site.

There is a view of the water, but we were really too far away to enjoy it. There is a playground, but it's of the older style. There is also road noise from the highway.

WiFi is horrible. We were able to get on the first two days, but gave up after that. We got the MiFi out. Verizon is also bad. The only way to get a decent reliable signal was with my booster. Cable TV was excellent.

The campground is about 7 miles out of Bar Harbor, which is not a bad thing. It's also 7 miles or so from the entrance to Acadia.

All in all, we would probably not stay here again. There are better options