Blackwoods Campground in Acadia National Park: How to Get a Site, and Which Loop to Pick
Photo: NPS photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped, with lettering added by Brian Russ Guides.
Blackwoods Campground is the big, wooded, reservation-only campground on the east side of Mount Desert Island in Acadia National Park: 281 sites, about 5 miles south of Bar Harbor on Route 3, and no electric hookups anywhere (NPS). If you want a tent site close to the Park Loop Road sights and you don't need power, it's the one most people end up trying to book.
It's closed for the season as of November 2026, but the next booking date is closer than you'd think (details below). This post is a companion to Acadia National Park: History, Highlights, and One- to Three-Day Adventures, which covers what to do once you have a site.
The Basics
Here's what the park and recreation.gov list for Blackwoods, as of November 2026:
- Sites: 281 in total. 217 are tent-only, 60 are RV-only, and 4 are group tent sites. RV sites have length limits of 20 or 35 feet (recreation.gov).
- Hookups: none. There's a dump station.
- Facilities: flush toilets, running water, picnic tables, fire rings, and paved roads. There are no showers at the campground, and cell coverage is poor.
- Fee: $30 a night for tent, camper, and motor home sites, and $60 for group sites, paid when you reserve (NPS). You also need an entrance pass for the park.
- Extras: a ranger station, an amphitheater, and an Island Explorer bus stop. The shuttle runs from late June to mid-October.
Every site is wooded, and the park says each one is within a 10-minute walk of the ocean. The photographer describes the tent site below as being at Blackwoods.
Photo: JRLibby, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
How to Get a Site
This is the part that matters most. Every site is booked online at recreation.gov. You can't reserve through the campground office or in person, and the park has no first-come walk-up sites at Blackwoods.
Ninety percent of sites are released six months ahead, on the first of each month at 10 a.m. Eastern. The other 10 percent are released at 10 a.m. Eastern, 14 days before the arrival date, on a rolling basis. Same-day online reservations are possible if anything is open (NPS). The park's own example: for a May 20 arrival, the first chance is December 1. By that pattern, December 1, 2026 is when May 2027 dates should open. That's as of November 2026, and the schedule can change, so confirm it on recreation.gov.
The park doesn't publish how fast sites go. My advice is to treat July, August, and early October as dates to book the minute they release, and to use the 14-day release as your second chance if you missed the first.
A few booking rules: check-in is after noon and check-out is before 10 a.m., and the combined limit is 14 nights between the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and Columbus Day, and 30 nights a year across Acadia's campgrounds. If you'll arrive after hours, go to your reserved site and check in at the ranger station before 10 a.m. the next day.
Where It Is and When It's Open
Blackwoods is off Route 3, about 5 miles south of Bar Harbor, and it's on the east side of the island near the Park Loop Road sights. There's no access from the Park Loop Road itself, and recreation.gov warns that some low bridges and height limits affect RVs.
On season dates, the park's Blackwoods page still lists the 2025 season, May 2 through October 20, and it hasn't been updated since November 2024. I couldn't confirm 2027 dates on the park's pages, so check recreation.gov when you book. What is clear: there's no off-season or winter camping at Blackwoods, or anywhere else in Acadia (NPS). If you're here in winter, the December guide and the winter guide cover what's open instead.
One current closure that touches this part of the island: as of November 2026, the southern section of Ocean Path is closed for repairs, from the trailhead across from the Otter Point parking lot to the trail's southern end (NPS). Ocean Path is the shoreline walk that passes Thunder Hole, shown here.
Photo: Pablo Sanchez, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
What Camping There Is Like
It's a large, shaded forest campground. Most sites are tent-only, and the rest take RVs. The two loops differ in one way the rules spell out: generators are not allowed in B-Loop, while A-Loop allows them only 8 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m., with the owner present. If you want a quieter tent site, I'd aim for B-Loop. A-Loop also holds the overflow lot where a second vehicle has to park, since each site gets only one.
The woods are part of the draw. The photo below shows lobaria lichen on a tree. Its photographer recorded it as found near Blackwoods campground in October 2026.
Photo: Citrusjuicykangaroo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Rules That Matter Here
- Bears: black bears are present. Keep food, cooking gear, and scented items locked in your vehicle.
- Quiet hours: 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
- Gear: one vehicle and up to two tents per site, and everything has to fit on the paved pad. Tree tents aren't allowed.
- Firewood: it has to come from within 50 miles. The park asks you to leave out-of-area firewood at home because of invasive insects.
- Pets: leashed at six feet or less, or caged, and never left unattended.
Those come from the recreation.gov page and the park's camping page, as of November 2026. The photo below shows granite ledges and autumn foliage on Cadillac Mountain.
Photo: Erin McDaniel, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Who Should Look Elsewhere, and Where
Skip Blackwoods if you need hookups (there are none), want showers on site, or hope to roll in and grab a site (you can't). The shower question is worth knowing: NPS points campers to a fee shower in Otter Creek, which is a drive, not a walk.
The closest alternative is Seawall Campground on the west side of the island, about 4 miles south of Southwest Harbor and about 18 miles from Bar Harbor. It has 202 sites, including 98 walk-to sites that sit 10 to 300 feet from the parking area, and walk-in tent sites are $22 instead of $30. RVs there are capped at 20 feet. It follows the same booking schedule, so you can try both on release day. My read: pick Blackwoods if you want to be near Bar Harbor and the Park Loop Road, and Seawall if a walk-to tent site matters more than being central.
Acadia's other options are Schoodic Woods on the mainland Schoodic Peninsula and Duck Harbor, which is reached by mailboat on Isle au Haut. The park says there's no backcountry camping, overnight parking, or winter camping anywhere in Acadia, and it points visitors to the many accommodations in nearby towns when the campgrounds are full.
Fitting Blackwoods Into a One- to Three-Day Trip
Blackwoods works as a base for a short stay because you're on the park's busy side of the island. The Jordan Pond view below is one of the sights people build a day around. The guide, Acadia National Park: History, Highlights, and One- to Three-Day Adventures, has itineraries for one, two, and three days. If you're visiting in winter, the harlequin duck guide covers a cold-season stop at Schoodic Point.
Photo: NPS / Victoria Stauffenberg, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Before you go: see Acadia National Park alerts and current conditions, checked daily, for current closures and what they mean for your trip.
This is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service. Campground seasons, fees, reservation rules, and closures change; check the park's current alerts and recreation.gov before you go.