This was our first visit to Bar Harbor, Maine and Acadia National Park. The area has three Thousand Trails – Trails Collection campgrounds. My first choice was Narrows Too because it has full hookup sites and is known for its larger campsites. From my earliest booking window it was full for the time we wanted to be there. Another option was Patten Pond which is a bit farther out from the National Park. I could have gone there, but really wanted to be able to ride the shuttle and avoid some of the traffic that makes driving anywhere sluggish in this popular tourist area. That left me with Mt Desert Narrows which is the closest to Bar Harbor.

This campground has a variety of campsites, including an impressive tent camping area right on the bay. There are also back-in water/electric sites on the water but they are packed in with neighbors right on top of each other. Up away from the water there’s a large section of full hookup sites, some 30 and some 50 amp. Unfortunately for us, none of these sites were currently available to people who come in on the Trails Collection program.

However, we were given a nice, grassy water/electric 50 amp “parallel parking” site near the activity center and pool. Really, no complaints. We had neighbors in front and behind us but there was room for parking, etc. Our front lawn was somewhat narrow with the road passing by. Again, no complaints. The pool is heated, making it nice even on cooler days. The staff was always friendly and helpful. We enjoyed free ice cream one afternoon and when I asked someone if my fire pit could be cleaned the fellow cheerfully stopped right then and took care of it for me.

We really enjoyed having the Island Explorer Shuttle stopping right at the campground. Using the shuttles we could make connections to downtown Bar Harbor and most of the famous spots in the park. We had to drive up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain because the shuttles don’t go there. Aside from that the pickup was left parked except for a couple of trips to the grocery and for church on Sunday.

The campground WiFi was decent and several sites have cable TV. We happily used their WiFi but I sat up the satellite dish so we could watch the Astros games (for some reason the local channels fail to air our Houston team, what’s up with that?). I had a weaker but usable 4G Verizon signal.

I think on a future trip I would again try to get a spot at Narrows Too just to have FHU but otherwise I would return to Mt Desert Narrows, no complaints.

See individual photos with captions here.