A field guide to Maine
Confirmed Sightings
Our favorite spots around Maine. Lakes, rivers, trails, beaches, lighthouses, mountains, museums and one very large sand dune. Pick a category and go somewhere Saturday.
- 27
- places
- 9
- categories
- 25
- towns
27 places across Maine
Acadia National Park
Bar Harbor · Parks & peaks
Cadillac Mountain, the Park Loop Road, and the only fjard on the east coast. Go at dawn in October and you will not regret the drive.
Sighting odds2 out of 5Baxter State Park
Millinocket · Parks & peaks
Katahdin, 5,269 feet, the northern end of the Appalachian Trail. Day-use parking is reserved in advance and it fills. If he's anywhere, he's here.
Sighting odds5 out of 5Camden Hills State Park
Camden · Parks & peaks
Mount Battie is a short climb or a toll road, and the view over Penobscot Bay from the top is the one on all the postcards.
Sighting odds1 out of 5Mount Blue State Park
Weld · Parks & peaks
Webb Lake on one side, the mountain on the other. Quiet, cheap to camp, and forty minutes from Farmington.
Sighting odds4 out of 5Sebago Lake
Casco & Naples · Lakes & ponds
Maine's deepest lake and Portland's drinking water. The state park on the north shore has the swimming beach and the campground.
Sighting odds1 out of 5Moosehead Lake
Greenville · Lakes & ponds
Forty miles long, the largest lake in the state, and still mostly forest all the way around it. Seaplanes fly out of Greenville all summer.
Sighting odds5 out of 5Rangeley Lakes
Rangeley · Lakes & ponds
Six major lakes, float planes, and some of the best brook trout water in the East. Also where people keep seeing lights they cannot explain.
Sighting odds4 out of 5Cobbosseecontee Lake
Winthrop · Lakes & ponds
Nine miles of bass water twenty minutes from Augusta. A lot of our lake listings are on this one or on Annabessacook next door.
Sighting odds2 out of 5Kennebec River Gorge
The Forks · Rivers
Dam-released whitewater, twelve miles of it, reliable all summer because the release is scheduled. Several outfitters run trips daily.
Sighting odds3 out of 5Coos Canyon
Byron · Rivers
The Swift River cut a slot canyon through bedrock here, and people still pan gold out of it. Free to swim, free to pan, rent a pan across the road.
Sighting odds4 out of 5Saco River
Fryeburg · Rivers
Slow, sandy-bottomed, and made for a canoe and a cooler. The classic float is Swans Falls down to Brownfield in a long afternoon.
Sighting odds1 out of 5Androscoggin Riverlands
Turner · Rivers
Twenty-six hundred acres and twelve miles of river frontage, fifteen minutes from the office. The closest real wilderness to Lewiston-Auburn.
Sighting odds3 out of 5Appalachian Trail
Monson to Katahdin · Trails
The last 281 miles run through Maine, including the Hundred-Mile Wilderness. You can day-hike pieces of it from a dozen road crossings.
Sighting odds5 out of 5Tumbledown Mountain
Weld · Trails
An alpine pond just below the summit that people swim in. The Loop Trail has a chimney you climb through — not for everyone, and worth knowing first.
Sighting odds4 out of 5Bigelow Preserve
Stratton · Trails
Thirty-six thousand acres over Flagstaff Lake, with two peaks above four thousand feet. Saved by a statewide referendum in 1976.
Sighting odds5 out of 5Bradbury Mountain
Pownal · Trails
Ten minutes up and a clear view to the ocean. The easiest real summit in southern Maine, which makes it the right one with small kids.
Sighting odds1 out of 5Popham Beach State Park
Phippsburg · Coast
A long sand beach at the mouth of the Kennebec, with a fort at one end. Check the tide before you park — the sandbar to Fox Island closes fast.
Sighting odds0 out of 5Reid State Park
Georgetown · Coast
Mile-and-a-half of sand backed by dunes, plus a warm tidal lagoon the kids can actually stand in. Quieter than Popham on a hot Saturday.
Sighting odds0 out of 5Old Orchard Beach
Old Orchard Beach · Coast
Seven miles of sand, a pier, and a genuine seaside amusement park. Unapologetic, and the kids will remember it.
Sighting odds0 out of 5Portland Head Light
Cape Elizabeth · Lighthouses
Commissioned by George Washington, lit in 1791, and still the most photographed thing in the state. Fort Williams Park around it is free.
Sighting odds0 out of 5Maine State Museum
Augusta · History
Twelve thousand years of Maine in one building, next to the State House. Worth an afternoon on a bad-weather Saturday.
Sighting odds1 out of 5Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village
New Gloucester · History
The last active Shaker community in the world. Museum tours in season, and the herb garden is worth the stop on its own.
Sighting odds0 out of 5Maine Wildlife Park
Gray · Family
Rescued animals that cannot be released — moose, lynx, bear, eagles. Small, walkable, and the best hour you can spend with young kids.
Sighting odds2 out of 5Desert of Maine
Freeport · Family
A genuine forty-acre expanse of glacial silt, exposed by bad farming in the 1800s. Odd, and exactly the sort of thing we like.
Sighting odds1 out of 5L.L.Bean Flagship
Freeport · Family
Open every hour of the year and there are no locks on the doors. Go at two in the morning once, just to say you did.
Sighting odds1 out of 5Sugarloaf
Carrabassett Valley · Ski
The second-highest peak in Maine and the only lift-served above-treeline skiing in the East. Summer has golf and lift-served trails.
Sighting odds3 out of 5Sunday River
Newry · Ski
Eight peaks in the Oxford hills, ninety minutes from Auburn. The reason a lot of our buyers start looking around Bethel.
Sighting odds2 out of 5
Moving here?
Tell us which of these you’d want a half hour from your door. It’s a better way to narrow a search than a price range and a bedroom count. People move here for the skiing, or the water, or to be near family — and that tells us which towns to show you.
