Blackwoods or Seawall Campgrounds- Acadia NP

[roadrat2]

We're planning a trip to Acadia National Park. Anyone have any thoughts as to which is a better campsite? We have a 31 Coachman class c. We plan to either rent a car for three days or use the camp bus system. We intend to spend at least one day at Bar Harbour sightseeing and having a nice dinner. The other two days are for hiking and sightseeing around the park.

Any thoughts, insights or opinions are welcome.

Thanks

[Gjac]

I have been to both. Seawall has some first come first serve sites and is easier to get into in the middle of the week and is closer to the ocean. Backwoods is closer to Bar Barbour and all the tourist shops. Both are nice I but prefer Seawall.

[bukhrn]

We were at Blackwoods in this past September, fully wooded pull through, nice hikes right from the CG, much closer to Bar Harbor, but not IN the town.
Generators aren't a problem, as long as you're not running it at night, we ran ours for an hour or so during the day.
Next time we may try Seawall. Acadia is an awesome place, and of course the food is part of that. 😉

[KristinU]

Now that you're talking private campgrounds...a nice one in the Seawall area is Smuggler's Den: http://www.smugglersdencampground.com/

You can hike to the Echo Lake area right from the CG and the Island Shuttle stops at the CG office.

[kevden]

We have stayed at both Seawall and Blackwoods, Hadley point campground, Mt Desert Narrows, and Bar Harbor campground. We prefer Bar Harbor campground. It is very well kept, clean, and a lot of their sites have more privacy than the other campgrounds. It is on the bus route, and it is the closest campground to the town of bar harbor. They do not take reservations, though, and take cash only. We stayed at blackwoods for a weekend last year, and ran our loud generator for a few hours. No complaints from anyone, although I did apologize to the closest neighbor when they returned from sightseeing and my genny was running. Seawall has lots of mosquitos. The island is really not that big, so you really cannot go wrong with any of the campgrounds.

[tenbear]

When we were a Blackwoods a few years ago our neighbors were running their gennys regularly. As long as you have a fairly quiet genny and run it at reasonable times you should have no problems.

[roadrat2]

Thanks for the replies. Turns out Seawall is not open when we plan to travel. Didn't realize there are private campgrounds in Acadia. Reading the reviews it seems that lots of folks are put off by the genny, which we usually run for at least an hour a day when we dry camp. Have any of you that stayed at Seawall or Blackwoods caught any nasty stares for running your genny? For that reason we may consider one of the private places with elec.

[wxtoad]

Although we haven't stayed at Blackwoods, we have visited Seawall a couple of times and enjoyed the peace and quiet it provides (except for one visit when a neighbor ran his generator all day while he was off sight-seeing). Here is a report, with pictures and comments, about the campground.

Have a great trip!

WxToad

[wtmtnhiker]

Seawall is great. Nice sites (but no hookups), a beautiful park on the ocean is across the street and it's handy to Bass and Southwest Harbors. Do the Ship's Harbor Nature Trail which is close by. Good restaurants in both places, SW harbor has a grocery store.

[tenbear]

I have stayed at both but I'm not sure which was which. One, I think Seawall, was more open than the other which had well defined sites in the forest of tall trees, mostly Spruce?? Both were excellent.

Seawall, I think, has some sites that are not reserved so you can just show up and if a site is free its yours. The other is 100% reserved.

[CloudDriver]

Never stayed at Blackwoods, but have stayed a couple of times at Seawall. The one thing we recall is that it is a great dark sky site. If the moon is out of the sky, the Milky Way is easily visible.

[Rolin]

We stayed at Mt Desert Narrows RV Resort.

Park shuttle stops at the resort entrance. We used the shuttle to travel all over the park. We would get off at a trail head, then at the end of the trail we could catch the shuttle to our next destination. Worked great. Shuttle drivers were willing to provide a lot of info and history as we traveled.

Resort had a coin laundry which was convenient. Right on the water...great view.

I think Mt Narrows RV Resort is associated with 1000 trails?

[Vet_Man]

The KOA is the best in my opinion, you can get a site on the inlet. Shuttle to town, clean.

[dahkota]

I preferred Seawall. Much less crowded, less traffic. Great oceanside hiking trails and a beach. Thurston's lobster pound about 10 minutes away. Bass Harbor and Southwest Harbor 5 minutes away.

If you like tourism and shopping and being in the middle of things, Blackwoods is better. If you like relaxing, fishing villages, and less crowds, Seawall is better.

[sdianel_-acct_c]

check their reviews on www.rvparkreviews.com under Maine, Acadia National Park. Neither have hookups.
Seawall is 35 minutes from anywhere.
Blackwoods has sites that will fit your RV and the shuttle stops there. I would definitely make reservations on www.recreation.gov. You can select 35' pull through site but not the exact site.