Get out in nature in the northern woods of Maine.

If you need a break from the noise of everyday life and want to get away with your family to a quiet place where you can hike without seeing another soul, feel the clean air on your face, see a sky full of stars at night, and maybe even catch a glimpse of a moose, then Baxter State Park in northern Maine woods is the spot for you!

Originally a gift to the people of Maine from then-Governor Percival Baxter, Baxter State Park is a 200,000+ acre park filled with over 200 hiking trails, ponds, and streams galore, and of course Maine’s tallest mountain and the end of the Appalachian Trail, Mount Katahdin.

While hiking Katahdin may not be on your family’s to-do list (it requires about 8-12 hours and an elevation gain of 4000 feet), there are plenty of shorter trails that can be completed in a few hours and with relative ease.

When visiting, we always recommend you speak to the Park Ranger at the Togue Pond Visitor Center at the southern entry of the park for suggestions. When our children were younger, we would do simple trails like the 1.4-mile easy Daicey Pond Trail Loop or the 1.8-mile Little Abol Falls Trail that passes by a waterfall. This past summer we were a bit more daring, and based on the Ranger’s advice, we hiked the 6.3-mile Chimney Pond Trail which was an easy-to-moderate out and back hike which brought us some gorgeous views of both the forest and various ponds.  

The park has 10 campgrounds various campsites for visitors – everything from tent sites to cabins – available for camping from May to October. If you’re like our family and camping isn’t your thing, the neighboring town of Millinocket has plenty of hotels, lodges, camping facilities, and restaurants to satisfy. Our family has stayed at both the Five Lakes Lodge and the New England Outdoor Center and enjoyed both stays in rustic-style cabins built along lakes.