We departed Friendship and drove Highway 1 heading northeast to Bar Harbor. The drive along the way is filled with great scenery as you drive through the quaint town of Camden and on past lobster pound after lobster pound and past a variety of scenic harbors.
We arrived at Acadia National Park only to find the visitor’s centers closed and a bit of road work going on. No problem, we stopped at the information board to study the roads to ensure we didn’t get caught with one of the 5 bridges which RVs might not fit under (depending on your rig height). We hoped we would be guided/directed by park rangers when we arrived at the entrance station. But there is not an entrance station in the northern part of the park (its further along as you drive south on the loop road) and the information board was sorely lacking in “information”. Luckily, some volunteer worker saw us and came over and explained to us how to best get to the campground with an RV (stay out of the park and use Route 3).
The campground is a national park campground but it is not inside the park so anytime you want to enter the park you have to drive a distance to get back around to the correct direction of the one way road and to one of the few places where you can enter the park onto the Loop Rd. If we ever returned then we would probably stay at one of the RV parks to the north of the park. It would save time and trouble with visiting the park and Bar Harbor. One of the main reasons we like to stay in a national park is not only for the beauty of the campgrounds but also for the convenience of access to hiking trails and everything the park has to offer. Blackwoods does not provide that kind of convenience but it does have beauty!
Blackwoods Campground is in the town of Otter Creek and there is a lovely little market just outside of the campground which sells a few dry food items, fresh cooked food, bakery items, fresh coffee, and firewood (which was pretty green). We soon discovered that this early in the season almost all firewood sellers were selling green wood as most campfires in the campground were smoke instead of flames. We made due and still managed to have a few campfires…I mean campsmokes!
Campground: Blackwoods Campground
Location: Otter Creek, Maine
Site: A55
Cost: $15 (50% off of the regular price with the National Parks pass)
Services: dry camp
Comments: A very wooded campground that is a lovely setting and within a short walking distance to Otter Cove on the Loop Rd. It is very treed so don’t expect your solar panels to generate much power nor to receive satellite TV. We visited the park towards the middle/end of May and it poured rain almost every day and was cold, very cold. It was a damp cold that chilled you to your bone. But we still enjoyed ourselves and made the best of a wet situation.
There is a very short path to the ocean, aptly called Ocean Path, from the campground that takes maybe 10 minutes where you can enjoy some beautiful views. We just happened to have 5 minutes of sunshine when we were there. We will take it!!
There is another trail called Quarry Trail which winds down to Otter Cove along Loop Rd. It is a bit longer than Ocean Path but still not very long.
There is also a trail that goes up to Cadillac Mountain which we would have hiked had it not been for the downpour of rain constantly. Maybe next time?
Leave a Reply