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Every number below comes from the live Acadia and Shenandoah pages on this site, which track the recreation.gov campgrounds we watch for cancellations.
Both are single-road national parks where one campground decision shapes the trip. Acadia gives you two monitored campgrounds: Blackwoods with 281 sites near Bar Harbor and Seawall with 178 sites on the quieter west side. Shenandoah runs one, Big Meadows, with 215 sites right on Skyline Drive. Fall color peaks earlier in Acadia (early October) and stretches later in Shenandoah (late October).
Acadia splits its inventory two ways: Blackwoods has 281 sites (217 tent-only, 60 RV with no hookups, 4 group) close to Bar Harbor, while Seawall adds 178 more sites (82 walk-to, 38 tent-only, 21 standard, 32 RV, 5 group) on the quiet side of the island. Shenandoah concentrates everything at Big Meadows: 215 sites, 163 standard plus 50 tent-only, sitting directly on Skyline Drive.
Choose Acadia for ocean-backed foliage, carriage roads, and lobster-town evenings; choose Shenandoah for a skyline drive where every overlook is a five-minute stop with kids in the car. Leaf season matters as much as logistics: coastal Maine turns earliest, while Shenandoah's ridgeline color holds into late October, which makes it the better last-minute October target after Acadia dates are gone.
All three campgrounds book on recreation.gov. Peak-foliage weekends at Big Meadows and Blackwoods go fast; set a free alert for your exact dates and we email the moment a cancellation opens. If nothing opens, cabins around Bar Harbor or Luray book on Vrbo as the fallback.
Acadia fills up fast — lock in a cabin nearby
Bar Harbor-area cabins minutes from Blackwoods.
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Both are single-road national parks where one campground decision shapes the trip. Acadia gives you two monitored campgrounds: Blackwoods with 281 sites near Bar Harbor and Seawall with 178 sites on the quieter west side. Shenandoah runs one, Big Meadows, with 215 sites right on Skyline Drive. Fall color peaks earlier in Acadia (early October) and stretches later in Shenandoah (late October).
Seawall is the sleeper: 82 walk-to sites and 38 tent-only sites mean more inventory per cancellation check than anywhere else in this compare. Big Meadows is a single 215-site pool on the most convenient road in either park, so it moves fast during peak leaf season. Set alerts for your dates at any of the three campgrounds.
Yes. Blackwoods, Seawall, and Big Meadows are recreation.gov campgrounds watched by Camp.land alerts. The first alert is free.