Heading to Maine!

Hey all,

I am heading to Maine this year. We have never been there before and we are going to stay from Wed August 9th - Fri August 18th. We are excited to visit a state we have never been to before but here is where we can use some help.

We have some general ideas of where we want to visit:

Bar Harbor, Acadia, and any other neat places on the coast.

However, we also want to head to the northern area to also see other neat places as well.

We will be pulling our camper with us so we are going to also have the ability to stay a few days in several places and we usually like a base of operations, and then take trips out to see the sights. Not adversed to driving but want to stay quasi close to our campground unless we are moving to a new location.

With that said, here are some ideas we would like to do while up there, if possible:

1. Dig clams on the beach to make a clam meal.
2. Find an amazing Maine restaurant to have fresh seafood.
3. Deep Sea Fish for whatever we can get a hook into
4. Visit the best of Maine away from the touristy type places.
5. Great campgrounds that are not the "super busy" campground that everyone goes to on a trip. (I don't mind going to a more commercialized campground if we need to but I like the smaller campgrounds that have full hook ups (W/E/S).
6. Any other great lesser known places that we absolutely must visit to round off our trip?

I know we may not hit everything but I would like to try and see as much of Maine as we can in our time frame. #3 would be an absolute awesome thing, but the only things I have found are major companies that charter and they are crazy expensive. Anything less known that would be willing to take three of us on a fishing trip (a bonus would also be willing to help fish for shark but that is not necessary or a deal breaker).

Thanks for the help in advanced and I look forward to the responses.

 

Where are you coming from? There are so many amazing places to visit and your route will help. Do you have any ties to the DoD?

Downeast has Kittery (shopping), Wells/Ogunquit (stunning) and Kennebunkport (touristy with the Bush compound to view). Good camping in this general area and good seafood. You've got the majority of the rest on the coast. Cadillac Mountain is supposed to be amazing, and Wolf Neck is supposed to be great, too.

I tend to stay inland and we absolutely love the Greenville area (Moosehead Lake/Baxter State Park). Lots of ATV trails and dirt/logging roads for exploring. Moose/human population is something like 6/1. There is also a B-52 crash site you can visit. Lots of good hiking, too. You can research The Pinnacle if you're into it.

Further up (another 3 hours or so) is Eagle Lake and there are abandoned trains to explore. That's a bigger trip, and may not be trailer friendly. Extra fuel required.

If you're going to ME, and if time allows, don't miss out on enjoying the White Mountains in NH, too. For just a few hours of driving, it's all so different and stunning with its own set of tourist attractions.

 

Agree with the North Maine Woods.You can definitely get lost there. It is as wild as it can be at the coast. Views are not that great, it is just trees, lakes and a bunch of dusty log roads. Bears are abundant. Black flies to human ratio is like infinite to one I go there seeking solitude a few times a year, mostly in cold seasons, to avoid bugs and humans.

People do pull trailers, but all trailer-friendly camp sites are located by the road, which can be very dusty. Also bring in cash, you have to pay for entrance

I never needed an extra fuel with 38 gal tank for 2-3 days trips, besides one time in winter when I was pushing deep snow a lot, resulting in 1-3 MPG.

No cell coverage, better have a sat phone or communicator, like Garmin InReach. DeLorme Maine Atlass & Gazetter is very nice to have.

 

Alright, finally got around to getting onto a computer but only had time to update my northern ME recommendation. Will update coast and southern ME soon.

As others have said, I'd definitely recommend heading north. Not sure I'd recommend going as far north as the North Maine Woods, but would most definitely suggest Millinocket. North Maine Woods (eagle lake trains) is a pretty good haul and would easily burn a whole day just looking a trees driving on dirt roads. If you do decide to go that route make sure you have at least one full spare, extra fuel, and some sort of sat. communication device. I'll attach a photo at the bottom that shows a flat I received up there. Wasn't a soul within 45 miles of us. But if you venture in there, keep your head on a swivel because it'll be logging season and those trucks don't stop or pull over for anyone.

As for Millinocket - this would be my plan. Drive into town mid-day, stop at the Blue Ox Saloon and enjoy a beer or two while looking at the eclectic decorations they have posted. After the beer(s) I'd head over to Rideouts Market and pick up a six-pack for the next step. Just a bit further down the road from Rideouts starts the Golden Road (very famous road in ME). Pull onto the Golden road and crack a beer (privately owned road by the logging companies - not patrolled). Head down the golden road until you reach Big Moose Inn Campgrounds. Grab your spot, get set up, and then head over Riverdrivers restaurant. Good food and an amazing view looking out onto the lake. See picture below of buddy's wedding. Head to bed or I guess theres a new brewery around the corner called Knife Edge. Never been.

Next morning wake up and visit the "Keep Maine Beautiful" rock. Could head back to the New England Outdoor Center and rent a canoe or paddle boards. Head out onto the lake and enjoy the views. After lunch, Id go to Nesowadnehunk falls just up the road and watch the rafters head over the falls. If you have a rod then bring it with you as its fun to fish those falls as well.

As I stated earlier, if you’re planning on heading to bar harbor stop at Mclaughlin’s seafood (assuming you take 95 up or back through Bangor) and grab a lobster roll. Owned by my buddy’s dad and they make one really solid roll

 

I was there last year and asked similar questions. I detailed all my lobster rolls at the end. If you only get one roll, go to Bite into Maine!
https://www.tundras.com/threads/recommend-lobster-shacks-in-maine-now-with-reviews.106141/

 

Man, there's a lot to see. I'd recommend using the York/Kennebunk area as one base area to get your beach time in. Those areas are touristy, but less so than Old Orchard. There are a bunch of world class beaches, Long Sands in York, Goose Rocks in Kennebunk and Ogunquit beach are all stunners. The Nubble Light in York is a must see and you'll be able to buy lobsters right off the dock in York Harbor.

The midcoast can be great. Georgetown is beautiful as is Bailey Island, Rockland and Camden. We've stayed at the Lobster Buoy in South Thomaston with the kids and also Wolf's Neck Camping in Freeport (near LL Bean) and had a blast at both. Both are pretty low-key and are on the water. The beaches are a little less abundant the further north you go, so we ended up fishing, hiking and shopping a little more.

Acadia/Bar Harbor is also a must. Tons of amazing hiking, biking and sights to see. Highly reccommend taking the time to drive around to Schoodic Point, it is absolutley stunning and you can grab lunch at the Pickled Wrinkle.

 

Quoddy Head state park has some awesome coastal fjord-like views on the trail, and a cozy arctic bog loop.

https://www.stateparks.com/quoddy_head_state_park_in_maine.html

 

Reserving a spot to respond to the replys. Time is escaping me at work and I have several things to do before meetings later. I will respond ASAP.

However, thank you all for the insights. I will be compiling these and as more are mentioned. Getting really excited to get up there.

 

We will be coming up through PA and through NY. Our main plan is to avoid major cities. I'm not exact on which interstate we will be coming up, but we are skirting around NYC and any other major places.

I do not have any ties to the DoD (Department of Defense I am assuming is what you mean?). The other places sound amazing! While Eagle Lake sounds like a great trip, the carrying of extra fuel and spare is something I don't usually do (I don't even have a spare, LOL!) But the B-52 site sounds really great. Will check with my route planner

Getting lost in the woods sounds like fun...if it were just me . But without a sat phone, I will probably just stick more to where I can get in and out on a 26 gallon gas tank. Having that friendly camper sites are nice. I don't mind the bigger campsites, but if I can help the smaller ones that are just off the beaten path, I am good with that. We stopped off at one in PA and it was absolutely amazing. The only issue was the sites were a little tight. Once we got in, it was good though.

Thank you for the info on the Eagle Lake. We will be heading north, but I'm not sure how North we will go. Thank you for the Lobster roll recommendation. I do think we will be on I95 for some of this trip, and fresh seafood is highly desired. I am waiting to see where we will end up.

Thank you. Read the thread and I am not ashamed to say that my mouth was watering. I will say that combining mayo and lobster was never considered. So I am excited to try.

Thank you for the campgrounds. I will share this and look at what the options we have in each of these places for what we are wanting to do. However, L.L. Bean sounds good...really good!

Thanks. Will take a look at it. One of the things we would like to do is to dig for clams. Possible to do that here? If not, no deal breaker, but just something we have never done before.


I would like to also see if there are any good recommendations for deep sea fishing? Everything we saw online was crazy expensive (prohibitively so). But if you all know of anyone who is more word of mouth and can do it for a little more affordable, I am wanting to see if we can do that.

Thanks for the advice so far everyone!

 

This is everything you need to know about Maine. If you can touch 1/16th of these then you’re in for an amazing trip.


the one thing that list is missing is Pats Pizza which is b*llshit. Pats is about as Maine as it gets

 

@TRDGoodness - external link to an RV forum regarding a similar trip. Enjoy!

https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/showthread.php/47119-Maine-trip-planning

 

It has been a while but I wanted to thank you all for the advice and suggestions. We had an amazing time in Maine. We jammed something like 8 or 9 things in a day and we crashed every night. But we enjoyed it.

We covered many places from Bar Harbor down to Portland. Our favorite places we visited was Porpoise Harbor (I believe), Kittery, and Langsford.

The two biggest highlights done were: The kids did zip line at a place called Sky Flight Adventures (I believe near Kittery but we were all over the place), and we also chartered a boat that had a last minute cancellation.

I want to give a shout-out to Captain Ben with Kristin K. Charters (https://kristinkcharters.com/) for fitting us in for their in shore 4 hour fishing! We caught four Stripped Bass (hooked into two but couldn't land them on the boat) and unfortunately couldn't keep them because they were too small (the largest was 26").

My family had Lobster (Lobstah for the Mainers here on this thread) at Langsford Rd Lobster and Fish House.

We did try to get some Lobster rolls, we had to split one because unfortunately the cost was too prohibitive for us to get a whole meal. It was fantastic though!

@dittothat, we did try to get over to visit your buddy's place but as was said, the cost of Lobster rolls put us as paying over $100 just for the rolls for the family. That was a little more than we could afford so we did split one early on (we were going to try a Lobster Roll in each place all the way north to Bar Harbor). We just couldn't do it after we were told the price of the first one. So thank you for the insight and we have passed it on to some other friends of ours who are planning on heading North this year and next.

All in all, there were some beautiful places to see. We did go through York (just long enough to visit the light house), and we also visited Phippsburg and Fort Popham. Acadia was amazing and glad we did it.

There were not a lot of light houses to go and explore inside but to see them from a distance was still pretty cool! My favorite one was there near York.

But we are back at home now, and it was a great trip. We have had to rest up afterward because as the saying goes, "Vacation from the vacation!"

The truck did awesome (probably because it was sea level). Pulling the highest MPG I ended up with was around 15 MPG. Without the trailer I hit 20.6 MPG and that with a 5.7!

Great times!

 

Awesome!! Glad you had a great trip and enjoyed it.

I’ll be heading that way in October. Going to land in Bangor and drive over to a buddy’s house in Bar Harbor. Then head up to Lubec and cross the boarder(lived there for 5 years but never went to that region or took Rt. 9 (airline route)). Headed to a wedding at the Algonquin in St. Andrew’s by the Sea. Should be a good time!

 

We did swing by St. Ann's which is on the ocean on a cliff. Old stone church and it was amazing. Had an outdoor sanctuary as well! Thank you, we did have a great time.