Duck Harbor Campground
3Heads uppark alerts
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 5All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Duck Harbor campsites are reservable starting on April 1st at 10:00am ET. Duck Harbor Campground is located on Isle au Haut, a rugged island off the coast of Stonington, Maine. Remote and inaccessible to automobiles, Isle au Haut is linked to the mainland by mailboat. Keep reading
Recreation
Isle au Haut offers excellent hiking. The remoteness of the island provides a quiet experience along primitive trails with many great views of rocky cliffs and coastal scenery. Bicycling is allowed but is very rigorous, on loose rock, and unpaved road. No trail biking. You must bring your own mountain bike. Bicycles can only be unloaded at the Town Dock. No bicycles may be loaded or unloaded at Duck Harbor Landing.
Facilities
This small campground contains five campsites. Each campsite has a fire ring, picnic table, and a lean-to shelter which is three-sided with roof and floor. Dimensions are 8' tall, 8' deep, and 12.5' wide. Use of tents is limited to what can fit inside the shelters. There are three composting toilets at the campground. There is a non-potable water source 0.3 miles from campground, however it may not be available during your stay. Plan ahead to bring enough water for the duration of your stay. There is a ranger station 4 miles from the campground but only 0.3 miles from the Isle au Haut Town Landing. The ranger station is open mid-May to mid-October, when there are rangers on Isle au Haut for the season. While the rangers are typically out in the field and not at the ranger station during most of the day, the lobby remains open, allowing visitors access to maps, reading material, and the only public restroom in town. Boat service to Duck Harbor is limited at the beginning and end of the season. Please review the Need to Know section .
Natural Features
Isle au Haut provides opportunities to explore rocky shorelines, wooded uplands, marshes, bogs, and a mile-long freshwater lake. A section of Acadia National Park covers about half of Isle au Haut. The campground is situated on the western side of Isle au Haut. It is just south of the Duck Harbor Boat Landing. The island is approximately six miles long by two miles wide.
Nearby Attractions
There is a small, traditional village near the Isle au Haut Town Landing where one can find a general store, seasonal gift shop, a seasonal food shack, and post office.
Charges & Cancellations
No Shows If a camper does not arrive at his/her campsite by 11:00am check-out time the day after the scheduled arrival date, their reservation will be cancelled, the camper will incur a $20.00 service fee, and forfeit the first night's camping fee . Making Changes to Your Reservation A $10.00 service fee will apply if you make any changes to your reservation. Cancelling Your Reservation If you cancel your reservation the day before or on the day of your scheduled arrival date, you will incur a $10 service fee and forfeit your first night's camping fee . If you cancel your reservation 2 or more days before your scheduled arrival date, you will only incur a $10 service fee. Please review Rules & Reservation Policies below for more information.
What the agency tells you
No pets allowed in the campground.
Campsite reservations can be made beginning at 10am on April 1.
The first night is June 19th and the last night is October 5th.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Maximum length of stay is three nights.
Campers are limited to one stay per calendar year.
Six people are permitted per campsite.
There is no potable water source at Duck Harbor Campground, and the existing non-potable water source may not be available. Plan ahead to bring enough water for the duration of your stay.
Check with the Isle au Haut Boat Services for boat schedule. On some days, boat transportation is limited to the Isle au Haut Town Landing and does not travel to Duck Harbor, especially during October. No reservations are taken for the boat. Be there at least one half hour before departure.
Distance from Ranger Station to Duck Harbor Campground is ~4 miles via trail and ~5 miles via road. Distance from Duck Harbor Boat Landing to Duck Harbor Campground is approximately 300 feet.
Prepare for camping in the backcountry and pack relevant camping gear. This is not car camping.
All trash must be carried out.
Firewood: Dead and downed wood may be collected near the campground. Please do not bring your own firewood to reduce the spread of non-native insects.
All campsites must be reserved on this website (recreation.gov) or by calling 877-444-6777. Camping without a reservation is prohibited.
Check-in time and check-out time is 11:00am
Arriving Late? You must arrive at your campsite before 11:00am check-out time on the day after your scheduled arrival date. If you cannot arrive by that time, you must call (207) 335-5551 or you will be marked a No Show and incur fees. Review them on the Fees & Cancellations tab above.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 5 · 5 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Composting Toilets - seasonal
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Stay limit
- 3 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Coast
- Fall color · reported 10 days ago, in Knox County
- Near peak
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
“No Shows - If a camper does not arrive at his/her campsite by 11:00am check-out time the day after the scheduled arrival date, their reservation will be cancelled, the camper will incur a $20.00 service fee, and forfeit the first night's camping fee. Making Changes to Your Reservation - A $10.00 service fee will app…” · this campground’s own no-show terms
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 6
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
5 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 5 mapped sitesAll 5 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 5 of the 5 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| DUCK HARBOR CAMPGROUND | 01 | overnight shelter nonelectric | 94 ft | 1,691 ft | $20 |
| DUCK HARBOR CAMPGROUND | 02 | overnight shelter nonelectric | 85 ft | 1,649 ft | $20 |
| DUCK HARBOR CAMPGROUND | 03 | overnight shelter nonelectric | 85 ft | 1,701 ft | $20 |
| DUCK HARBOR CAMPGROUND | 04 | overnight shelter nonelectric | 126 ft | 1,659 ft | $20 |
| DUCK HARBOR CAMPGROUND | 05 | overnight shelter nonelectric | 190 ft | 1,887 ft | $20 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Seawall CampgroundAcadia National Park · 23 mi
Blackwoods CampgroundAcadia National Park · 29 mi
Schoodic Woods CampgroundAcadia National Park · 38 miFrom the north, take I-95 to Bangor, then I-395 to Brewer, then take Rte. 15 south to Stonington. From the south, take I-95 or I-295 to Augusta, then Rte. 3 to Belfast, then Rte. 15 to Stonington.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Rockland, ME
Typical weather
Typical October night 41°F, day 57°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 12°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
Duck Harbor Campground is in Maine’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Chellie Pingree (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A. See every public-lands vote →