Camden Hills State Park and Mount Battie
280 Belfast Road
Camden, ME
Drive or hike to the stone tower on Mount Battie for one of the great views in Maine, the harbor, the islands, and the bay that stirred a nineteen-year-old poet to write Renascence.
Camden Hills State Park spreads across the wooded hills that rise steeply behind Camden harbor, and its crown is Mount Battie, an 800-foot summit with a stone tower and a view that is hard to forget. From the top you look straight down onto Camden's harbor full of masts, out across the blue expanse of Penobscot Bay, and over the scattered islands that make this one of the loveliest stretches of the Maine coast.
That view has a place in American poetry. Standing on these hills as a young woman, Camden's own Edna St. Vincent Millay took in the bay and the islands and wrote Renascence, the poem that launched her career, opening with lines about seeing three islands and a bay. The park pairs that literary weight with real hiking, from the gentle auto road up Battie to the steeper trails over neighboring Mount Megunticook.
What Guests Love
- The summit view from Mount Battie over Camden harbor and the island-studded bay
- A stone tower at the top you can climb for a 360-degree panorama
- The literary connection to Edna St. Vincent Millay and her poem Renascence
- Miles of trails, from the easy auto road to the steeper climb up Mount Megunticook
Worth Knowing
- You can drive the toll auto road up Mount Battie in season, or hike it by trail year-round
- The Mount Megunticook trails are rockier and steeper; wear real hiking shoes
- The summit is exposed and can be cold and windy even on warm days
- Fall foliage weekends are popular; arrive early for parking
Details
Camden, ME
Learn about Camden Hills State Park and Mount Battie
The summit and its tower
Mount Battie can be reached two ways: by a paved toll auto road that winds to the top in season, or on foot by a short but steep trail from the base. Either way, the reward is the same.
At the summit stands a round stone tower, built in the 1920s as a memorial to local veterans of World War One, replacing an earlier summit hotel. Climbing its steps adds a few feet and a full circle of view.
From up top the whole MidCoast opens below you: Camden's harbor and rooftops, the working waterfront, Penobscot Bay dotted with islands, and on a clear day the hills of the mainland rolling away inland.
The poem born on these hills
Edna St. Vincent Millay grew up in Camden and Rockland, and as a teenager she climbed these hills. The view of the bay and its islands inspired Renascence, a long poem she wrote around age nineteen and recited in 1912, which brought her sudden national attention.
The poem's famous opening describes looking out on three islands and a bay, the very scene visitors still take in from Mount Battie. Millay went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and become one of the most celebrated American poets of her era.
A plaque near the summit marks the connection, giving hikers a quiet moment to match the words to the landscape that produced them.
Trails beyond Battie
The park is far larger than Mount Battie alone. Adjacent Mount Megunticook is higher, and its trails lead to Ocean Lookout, an open ledge with a view many hikers prefer, reached by a steeper and rockier climb.
Beyond the front summits, more than thirty miles of trails wind through the park's forest and over its ridges, including routes to Maiden Cliff above Megunticook Lake, marked by a large white cross.
The forest is classic coastal Maine, spruce and fir mixed with hardwoods, and the higher ledges offer repeated glimpses of the bay through the trees on the way up.
Season by season
Summer is the busiest season, when Camden's harbor is full of windjammer schooners and the auto road carries a steady stream to the summit for the view.
Fall is the showstopper, when the hardwoods turn and the summit view fills with color over the blue bay, drawing crowds on the best weekends.
Winter closes the auto road but opens the park to snowshoers and hardy hikers, who earn a crisp, clear, and solitary version of the famous view.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Camden
Camden harbor and downtown
About 1 mile, a 5 minute drive
A classic Maine harbor town with windjammer schooners, shops, and restaurants set around the waterfront.
Rockland and the Farnsworth Art Museum
About 8 miles, a 15 minute drive
A working harbor city with the Farnsworth Art Museum, its Wyeth Center, and the Maine Lighthouse Museum.
Owls Head Transportation Museum
About 12 miles, a 20 minute drive
A collection of working antique aircraft and automobiles that stages flying and driving demonstrations.