Camden Hills State Park

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On Monday, June 8, we were absolutely THRILLED to learn that the state of Maine would be allowing residents of New Hampshire and Vermont to visit the state without having to first quarantine for 14 days. While G and I have pretty much been self-isolating since March due to his immune-compromised health situation, we were itching to be able to book a few camping trips to Maine. Being on the NH seacoast, with the Maine border fewer than 20 miles away, it’s just as close (if not closer, in some cases!) for us to visit state parks in Maine than it is to do so in New Hampshire. So, with that June 8 announcement, G and I jumped online and starting booking weekends. First up, a three-day visit Camden Hills State Park (June 25-28). We had initially planned to spend Memorial Day Weekend at Camden Hills SP, but the pandemic altered those plans; instead, we decided we’d spend our 21st anniversary there!

 

Camden Hills State Park is located in Camden, Maine, which is mid-coast Maine, about 85 miles north of Portland and about 75 miles from Bar Harbor. The Camden/Rockland area is gorgeous, with so much in the area to do, see, and explore. We’ve visited a few different times over the years—to the Farnsworth Art Museum (I’m a big fan of the Wyeths), the Rockland Breakwater Light, to the shops, and to the Samoset. Last year, we made sure to include a night in Camden during our three-week road trip up the Maine Coast and to the Canadian Maritimes. But we hadn’t ever visited Camden Hills State Park. The wait was worth it.

We had reserved campsite #99, but as is always the case when choosing campsites, no matter how much research I do online (scouring photos and reviews from The Dyrt, Tripadvisor, and CampsitePhotos.com), we never really know until we get there. Also, the parks page on Maine.gov not only has PDFs available for all of the parks but also links to check out most of the campgrounds through Google Earth—pretty cool! I wish New Hampshire would do this!!

Check-in was a breeze; we bought a few bundles of wood ($7 for a generous bundle) and headed to our site, which wasn’t very far from the entrance gate and the entrance to the Mount Battie Auto Road (more on that later). The site is considered small (suitable for pop-up or tent, up to 20’), but we thought it was a great size. We positioned the van to provide a bit more privacy in the spot; the fire pit, which isn’t visible in the photos, is on the other side of the van.

As I’ve taken to include a section on each of these write-ups to focus on our camp cooking, I’ll keep it up here. This weekend was simple food all the way—grilled cheese in the pie irons, buffalo chicken flatbreads (I had made and shredded chicken ahead of time and pre-mixed it with buffalo sauce and blue cheese dressing and then just packed it in a small jar), chips, pasta salad that I had made ahead of time, and a few sodas. I had also pre-made/assembled a batch of southwestern egg rolls that I hoped to grill up, but after a few days in the cooler, they were pretty much mush when I opened the foil. So, a second night of grilled cheese sandwiches for the win! And honestly, I think G and I could live off grilled cheese when we camp. Extra treats for me also included a tortilla roll-up with peanut butter and sliced banana and cinnamon for breakfast and a peanut better and blueberry jam roll up for lunch (G’s not a fan of the roll-ups for some weird reason, so I told him he was on his own; he planned to snack on cheese and crackers and forgot to pack the cheese!). We also treated ourselves to cinnamon rolls for breakfast—G decided to roast his cinnamon rolls directly over the fire, which we had tried (and succeeded doing) on a previous weekend trip. I made mine in the pie iron. While they took a bit longer (about 15-20 minutes), they were soooo good.

The real treats when it came to food this weekend was Jiffy Pop. I’m not sure we ever had Jiffy Pop growing up—I’m not sure why!!—but watching G follow the directions down to a T and then watching that foil bubble expand was so much fun. Yup, at 45 and 52, I guess we’re still kids at heart.

Two of the main attractions of Camden Hills State Park are Mount Battie (780’) and Mount Megunticook (1386’), both of which can be reached via trails from the park. Now I’m not a hiker. I can walk for miles, but throw in some elevation, and I’m done. Due to G’s severe anemia right now, a result of his declining kidney condition, he can’t really exert himself much, and I really don’t trust my ability to do any kind of solo hiking—I’m a bit directionally challenged to begin with, and I don’t love the idea of hiking a wooded trail on my own. BUT, here’s the cool thing: there’s an AUTO ROAD up to Mount Battie! So, my brilliant idea was that I would walk up the auto road (I wouldn’t be able to get lost!!), and G could drive up in the van and meet me up top. A win-win! And it was. I’ll be writing a second post on the walk (and our walk along The Shoreline Trail across the street), so I’ll stick to the basics on this post. The walk up the auto road wasn’t a breeze—in fact, I had to stop a few times just to catch my breath. And while it only took about a half-hour, there was an elevation gain about 555 feet over that half hour—for this living-at-sea-level-girl, my lungs felt it. However, the view from the top is gorgeous and totally worth it—views of Camden Harbor and Penobscot Bay, views that inspired Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem “Renascence.” Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the tower itself was closed off (bummer!), as I’ll bet the views from the top are even more striking.

I decided to walk back down instead of jumping in the van and heading back down with G. Then, once back to the campsite, we decided to walk across the street to the other half of the park (Route 1 bisects the park) and check out the Shoreline Trail. I’m so glad we did, as that, too, afforded gorgeous views! The shoreline trail itself is short and flat; picnic tables and grills are spaced along the way, and rock steps lead down a bit, onto rock slabs and closer to the water to take in that unmistakable Maine coastline. This side of the park also features the group camping sites and restrooms (which we didn’t use)—and a sweeping lawn with two lovely wooden Adirondack chairs. We sat for a few minutes, took in the view, and then headed back across the street to our campsite.

While still atop Mount Battie, I knew I’d be in need of a shower at some point, and G had filled up our NEMO Equipment Helio LX pressure shower and set that up in the Heliopolis. After our walk along the Shoreline Trail, I got to test out the shower—it worked great! However, next time, we’ll have to fill up the reservoir and leave it in the sun, as the water was coooold (but still refreshing!). If you want to read more about the NEMO Heliopolis and Helio shower, check out my longer post about those here.

We lucked out with the weather, as we did both hikes on Friday (since we came up on Thursday), and the day was perfect. Saturday was a little less than perfect; it was one of those June gloom kind of days, so we hung out at the campsite and read and relaxed instead. We had thought about heading out and sightseeing for the day, but neither of us was feeling super motivated to leave the campsite. We spent the afternoon relaxing in our hammocks, reading (II devoured Brendan Leonard’s memoir Sixty Meters to Anywhere—SO good), and even playing a few rounds of bocce (I won, 2-0).

We also walked around the campground, scoping out the “best” sites for next time. In case you’re interested, here are the sites we listed as our favorites (you can check out where they are on the map above and head over to the Maine.gov site to see them on Google Earth!): 65, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, and 81 (note that sites #68-81 don’t have wi-fi). For us, those were the most private/secluded sites, and that’s what we typically look for when we’re camping. Our site (99) was good, but also pretty close to a few others; when a group of four women and two dogs (dogs are allowed in Maine state parks) set up their four tents on Friday evening just on the other side of where we were, we realized just how far the voices and laughter (and barks) carried.

All in all, Camden Hills State Park is fantastic park with so much to offer. I’m sure we’ll be back, as we love the area, and the campground makes for a great base for exploring all that Maine’s mid-coast has to offer. If you want to read more about the trails we walked, be sure to read the Part II post (coming soon!).

Be well and stay safe out there, friends!