Visiting the Midcoast of Maine – Spend a Day in Camden

Camden is a quaint Maine coastal village located right on U.S. route 1. Camden is a a great place to spend a day or more.

Camden has a small picturesque inlet that is well protected from the waves of Camden Harbor. There is a small evergreen covered island at the mouth of the harbor that makes it even more scenic.

Camden Falls

Camden also has a scenic waterfall that cascades behind the businesses on Route 1 and down into the harbor. The falls are on the northwest side of the parking area near the businesses. These GPS coordinates (44.210085, -69.064111) are for the parking area for the harbor.

There are power boat and schooner cruises that depart from Camden Harbor. There are also food stands along the harbor where you can grab a quick lunch, but I recommend having lunch at one of the restaurants on Route 1 that have an upstairs deck. From the rear deck, there are views of the waterfall from the top as well as a great view of the Camden Harbor.

There are plenty of shopping, galleries, and dining options in Camden. In fact, we found the prices at the tourist shops to be more reasonable than in Freeport and L.L Bean.

Camden Harbor

Photographing Camden

Since I normally write a travel photography blog, I thought I’d better include some information for the photographers.

For photographers, the main subjects are the harbor and the waterfall that flows down into Camden Harbor. I used a sturdy tripod, remote shutter release and stacked a .6 and .9 ND filter to get a silky look to the falls at mid day. There is room for one tripod on the dock near the falls.

Since the Harbor faces east, this location would be a great sunset photography opportunity. Also take the time to walk around the harbor and look for compositions. There are both working boats and sailboats docked in Camden harbor. A great composition would be to catch the schooner as it sails out of the harbor in the late afternoon light.

Have lunch or dinner in one of the restaurants on Route 1 that have a rear facing second floor deck, if for no other reason than to photograph the harbor and boats traveling in and out of Camden Harbor.

Written by Martin Belan

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