Mount Battie — the Summit That Rewards the Climb
Near Camden, Maine
The summit of Mount Battie sits nearly eight hundred feet above sea level and less than two miles from the Camden waterfront, which makes the view from the top one of the most dramatic available by car on the Maine coast. A paved road spirals up the mountain from the entrance to Camden Hills State Park, and at the top stands a stone tower built in nineteen twenty one as a memorial to Camden men who died in the First World War.
From the tower, on a clear day, you can see across Penobscot Bay to the hills of Deer Isle and the Camden Outer Islands. In the harbor below, the windjammer schooners look like toys. To the south, the bay widens toward the open Atlantic. In October, when the maples and birches on the hillside below the summit are in peak color, the view has the quality of something staged, and yet it is entirely real.
The park that contains Mount Battie became a state park in nineteen forty seven. It includes many miles of trails, several additional summits, and a campground that overlooks the bay. Hikers who walk up rather than drive are rewarded at the summit by the feeling that they have earned what they are looking at. The trail from the park entrance takes about forty five minutes at a moderate pace.
