Horseneck Beach State CG is on the ocean. This is dry camping only and definitely not for everyone. There are water spigots throughout the CG to fill your tanks. At most, not all, of the sites you can reach the spigots with a water hose. We needed 100 feet, but in some sites it could be much more. There is also a dump station that is open 24/7. There are currently 32 sites on the water or across the street from the water, which are scheduled to be closed starting in 09. The park is under going a renovation, but the new configuration has not been decided yet and will not be ready for next year. You park parallel to the street on asphalt pads, right next to the street. This means anyone walking around at night talking or making noise will probably wake you as did the obnoxious female teenager screaming and talking on her cellphone outside our bedroom window after midnight just like it was 2:00 in the afternoon. Another negative are the very noisy construction generators that some run from morning until night. Quiet-time is from 10:00pm. to 7:00 am. On multiple days during our 8 night stay we saw dumpsters overflowing with trash around the smelly dumpsters. There are two new bath houses on the public beach which is a short walk from the CG. Since this area is known for large waves and a dangerous undertow, the public beach has life guards. The CG has people on 24 hours. Being a state CG, the rules state that there is no alcohol allowed on the property. None of the CG rules appear to be consistently enforced. This may be a rare occurrence, I don’t know, but on our last day we had a measured 10 ½ inches of rainwater in our site. A lot of tents were flooded in the CG. We were told there was a lightning strike prior to our arrival that wiped out the electronics in several motorhomes and several cars. Since the ocean water is the warmest in Massachusetts, despite the negatives, we will try to get a site here next year. There were only 3 big rigs here during our stay.

For those of you that have had wonderful experiences at Mt Desert Narrows prior to 2008, this is not the same place. It was sold during the winter of 2007/2008 and is under new management. I camped here as the wagon master for a group of 7 RV's from July 18 to July 25 (should have been 26), 2008. The problems started in late January when we had trouble making our reservations. We were finally given a special extension (220) to call for reservations and assured by Amy at their call center in NY that the 6 RV's in the group requesting premium sites would be together. This was confirmed multiple times by people in the group calling them in the six months prior to our arrival, including a week before our arrival. When we arrived, our group was not together and management refused to put us near each other. Apparently, they had given our sites away to other campers who did not like the sites they had been assigned prior to our arrival. It gets worse: those that did not pay in full due to their “NO Refund” policy in January/February were charged a $3 a night surcharge that they referred to as a “Resort Fee”. I have no idea how they figure this average campground is a resort. Since the surcharge does not appear on their website and the surcharge was added after I made my reservations in late January, I did not feel that I should have to pay it. The workampers at the reception desk were not able to help me, but they assured me that since the "resort fee" was not being charged when I made my reservation, it would be taken off when I spoke to the Facilities Manager, John Donovan. Mr. Donavan’s attitude was that everyone had to pay the surcharge, regardless of when you made the reservation. After you agree to pay their absorbent nightly rate in January/February, I guess they feel that they can up the rate with a surcharge and that you are supposed to pay it without question. At this point I should have let my credit card company deal with it, but I had to say that I would mention it in a review on www.RVParkreviews.com. He immediately told me I had 1 hour to leave the campground and then called the police. The police officer suggested that I just move up the street to Hadley’s Point Campground or Bar Harbor Campground. In retrospect, both would have been 1/2 the price of Mt. Desert Narrows. I was told to stop by the office on the way out and they would refund the surcharge. They did, but I still had to leave. Even though the skies were blue in the west, I packed up in a ferocious rainstorm. This ruined our vacation as the family had been looking forward all week to a planned kayaking tour that had to be curtailed. This campground has huge problems. I will never stay here again and I will not recommend this campground to anyone.

Due to its location and low cost, this is one of our favorite campgrounds. Reservations are made through ReserveAmerica.com. This campground has had significant improvements made to it during the winter. The road into the campground has been resurfaced. There is a new group campfire area and new horse shoe pits. There is a 7 mile bicycle/walking path along the Cape Cod Canal. It has a great beach, but the water is very cold. The jetty is great to walk on and watch the sunset from. The fishing for striper bass was great during our stay. Being a state campground, no alcoholic beverages are allowed. On the negative side, even though they have made a huge effort at controlling the poison ivy, there is still plenty of it in a lot of the sites. The distance to water hookups can be significant in some sites. The dump station is only open from 8:00am until noontime. They had just started making improvements to the dump station, but I don't know what they were doing. There is no security after 12:00 pm. I would recommend this campground, keeping in mind the poison ivy problem issue.

I was told that I had full hookups when I made our registration. The campground does not have full hookups, but does have a honey wagon for $5. We wasted most of a day waiting for them to come. They have two dump stations. I was also told that the playground was rustic and that very few used it. In fact it is new and extremely popular. Even though the rules state that all children must be accompanied by an adult and the playground closes at 9:00 pm the rules weren't followed or enforced. Friday night there were kids still at the playground at 11:00 pm, and we listened to an obnoxious screaming girl for at least an hour Sunday. We had site 37 next to the playground. The new owners overbooked and several double sites had 3 campers on them. The sites were very large, and the campers were camping together. They have extremely large sites and very small sites. You need to know the campground. They had a disk jockey playing classic oldies Saturday night that was very entertaining. The pool was closed. We did not have Wi-Fi from our site 100 feet from the office nor did I see any WI-FI antennas. WI-FI was available inside the office area. The website states "FREE Wi-Fi wireless access throughout the park". The roads are dusty and in one area were muddy. Most (almost all) sites are grass. The grass was cut, the water pressure was adequate and the 50 amp service was within voltage specs. There were quite a few cable channels. Not all sites had back-flow preventers on the water hookups. The campground is near a lot of attractions in and around Mystic. There were quite a few very high-end Class A's there. The new manager was friendly and extremely accommodating. The new owners appear to have the resources to make this a great campground, they just need to stop lying and hire a lot more help.