Great Pond Campground MWR: Year-Round Outdoor Fun in Maine
One of our very favorite MWR campgrounds is Great Pond, Maine. It is open year-round, with canoeing, cycling, hiking in the summer, and even offers ice fishing cabin rentals in the winter.
There’s a beach for launching canoes, trails for riding, and lots of walking on main roads or more challenging options.
Great Pond Outdoor Adventure Center has seven lakeside cottages, six cabins, two lodges, six yurts, (five in the campground with water and electric) and one is only accessible by boat.
There are 13 RV sites/campsites and one wilderness site.
The reason we like Great Pond is that there are very few sites in proportion to the grounds.
It seems the visitors here come every year. It’s so far off any main highway routes that campers are not using it for a one-night stay on their travels. It is an entire destination.
The huge recreation room features a wood stove and a fireplace, and air hockey, pool, foos ball, popcorn machine, and coffee.
Lodge hours are advertised from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., but it seems someone’s always there long before and well after those hours.
The office is at one end of the huge lodge. At the other end, there is an enormous fireplace and a wood stove. Also, there are games, books, puzzles, and dvd’s to borrow.
They sell a lot of basic camp cooking needs, and beer and wine. And they serve popcorn every day 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.! Plus, there is coffee.
The ice cream is $2 and $1, plenty of varieties, and the campsites are a half mile from the rec center. So it’s a great thing to send your children for ice cream. You won’t see them for at least an hour!
Today a child came tearing in, looked into the ice cream cooler, and excitedly announced that there is a new variety today. Ahhhh, the joys of simple living. A new flavor of ice cream is big news.
Behind the main office, the hallway to the bathrooms is full of posters about local flora and fauna.
There are maps, charts, diagrams, and ideas for day trips to places like Khatadin or hikes along streams.
There’s a wealth of local knowledge and inforlemation available to review.
Poster after poster of local information on birds, bees, butterflies, animal tracks, habitats – you can find it all here between the rec room and the bathrooms.
There is a dock with a pontoon boat and plenty of kayaks and paddle boards available to rent. There are not as many beach and children’s slides and play grounds like at Round Pond, New York.
But, there are a lot of chipmunks.. And pavilion and a putt putt golf course and a small play ground.
The yurts are definitely an interesting option and fascinating just to take a look.
They have canvas-type sides, wood lattice structures, and are complete with screen doors.
Every site has a fire pit and a picnic table
While the sites are not on the water, there there are a couple of older and a couple newer cabins that have waterfront locations.
The campsites are just off the water and well separated. They are dispersed between yurts and a cabin and tents and RV sites.
A great day hike inside the property is up to Rift Pond.
There is a well–marked trail that follows Collar Creek out to Rift Pond. It is almost a one-mile walk. The signs let you know that the trail has plenty of rocks and roots. Plan to walk half as fast as you normally do!
Next week, look for a full-length article on this hike; it’s such a great hike; it deserves its own post!
The trail is approximately one mile in length – we found it was a bit shorter.
This trail follows Collar Brook and ends at Rift Pond where you can fish with artificial lures only for brook and brown trout. The pond is 34 feet deep.
When they say don’t forget towel, sunscreen, water, bug spray – believe them!
Uphill from Great Pond, this roadside stand called Kick Ass Farm sells chocolate fudge, whoopie pies, eggs, and strawberry rhubarb pies.
There are beautiful plump fussy chickens running around, and a couple big rabbits.
As we were driving in, we saw the chubbiest woodchuck ever.
Once we got a camp set up, we headed out on the bikes to pit our legs against the seemingly insurmountable hill leading down to the pond.
Ernie’s firewood is right up the hill from Great Pond.
On that first bike ride up the hill, we saw there was a very large snapping turtle busy laying eggs at the Kick Ass Farm.
It was charger-sized, and across the paved road from the pond. Later we saw one at Great Pond; dinner-plate sized, also busy laing eggs. She made several false nests.
Then I saw two Mom turkeys with a whole bunch of chicks.
Then I saw a deer at the cemetery. Can you spot it? Non-stop animal action! Good cell phone service up here, by the way.
Maine deer are a lot bigger than Florida deer! I saw two large ones on my walk the next day. They were crossing a campground road.
Great Pond is open all year, and right now in the spring, the mosquitoes are ferocious. In the winter, you can rent an ice fishing cabin. I can just imagine all the excited children piling into the lodge to play air hockey and pool, sharing accounts of their snowy adventures.
Great Pond is indeed great camping for several reasons.
First of all, they have the nicest showers of any MWR I’ve ever seen. While the regular showers are a bit tight, they are molded fiberglass instead of tile, so they always look clean. The handicap shower is made for royalty!
Huge machines: wash is $2 a load, drying is $1 a load. Very reasonable!
The bathhouse has several stalls, not too tight. and very modern and clean.
The showers at this Fam Camp are one of the reasons this is my favorite camp! They are the very best I have seen from Florida to Maine!
in the bath house are a bit tight, but all of them have sliding doors instead of shower curtains.
Hint: if you choose the handicapped shower, you also have a seat to set your belongings, and it’s extra-large. There is one double hook to hang your towel or bag.
This time, we were slated to be in spot seven that we had last year. It is conveniently located near the bathhouse. This time we could have spot seven for two nights, and then would have to move to another site for the next five nights. When we checked, it turns out we could have site eight for the entire time! So I opted to not move! They’re very flexible.
Each site has water and electric but not sewer. I think this place is the reason that we purchased one of those portable sewer tanks. By the bath house, there is a huge pull-through area for waste dump.
This is a good time to bring up Hannaford. Hannaford is the Publix of the north. Their house brands are very good, just like Publix house brands.
Bill wanted to choose some soups in case of dreary, rainy Maine days. Our first day at Great Pond was sunny and beautiful. He ate soup anyway since he was excited about the selections.
Bill chose the lobster bisque and the clam chowder.
We can report that they are delicious!
For more information about Great Pond, go to https://get.dodlodging.net/propertys/great-pond-outdoor-adventure-center
I Don’t Go Anywhere Without:
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- Mustang Survival pfd’s and foul weather gear for military specifications equipment.
- Harvest Hosts for the wineries, breweries, alpaca farms, honey apiaries, camping on the fly!
- Crisis Medicine Tactical Casualty Care Course knowledge so we can help ourselves.
- MyMedic Individual Bleeding Control Kits. We take ours everywhere.
- North American Rescue CAT tourniquets.
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- RoadId for $5 off your cycling/running/kayaking/travel/sailing id. Sailors are now wearing them!
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