We are planners, but we did not plan for this. No, we’re not talking about #2 (Adeline), who was a surprise, we’re talking about this most recent trip to Mt. Blue State Park. About Adeline though, once the shock and excitement cleared the room, we realized how big of a change this would be, a good change. Having a baby mid-May threw a wrench in something silly like camping season. We always preach start early but how early is too early??? What we’ve learned is that it really comes down to our comfort level as parents. We started at 6 months with Eloise but then 2 months with Adeline. We were more confident the second time around which meant we were more comfortable starting earlier. But just because we planned to operate as business as usual didn’t mean we could still continue at the same pace. To us that wouldn’t have been comfortable and probably not as enjoyable, so we scaled things back and only planned for 2 camping trips this year, instead of 4 and then the annual trip up to Allagash. If it all feels too stressful, then don’t force it. Maybe that should be another ‘Lessons Learned’ post down the road. 

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3 months before Adeline arrived, we locked in our camping weekends back in February and carried on with life. She arrived and boy did she arrive, what a kid and that smile. But unlike with Eloise, we felt like we were off and running and it wasn’t necessarily by choice. There is no easing into parenthood again when you are still a parent to another tiny human. Weeks into it and it felt like we were up to our usual stuff, but just with an infant in tow. So this 3rd camping trip happened because we got to a point in the season in which we just looked at each other and said, “why not?” Life was good and it didn’t feel forced. 

With minimal open weekends at this time of the year, we had one opportunity so we both took a Friday off and planned for 2 nights and 3 days at Mt. Blue State Park. Reservations for state park family campgrounds normally stop the second week of September and it becomes a first come, first serve, until around Columbus Day. A handful of these parks allow winter camping but the facilities are closed and staff are scarce. Being the big planners we are, traveling up to the campground with no reservation wasn’t easy for us. We love to do our homework, pick out a site, blah blah blah. Even on the drive up there we started to convince ourselves that the 137 site campground would be full in late September because we saw one RV pass us on the way up. Part of that reason was the weather forecast. We were about to enter into three of the nicest days of the month and just after this same area had frost 48 hours before…classic New England.

When we arrived we of course drove into a ghost town. Park staff were already working on off-season projects and we got to drive the 3 campground loops to pick out whichever site we wanted.

This was awesome but also hard because there were too many to pick from. Thank you staff! The place couldn’t have been at 20% occupancy so privacy was going to be the theme of the weekend. Actually, Eloise said three separate times “why nobodies here?” 

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We were coming off a high from Peaks Kenny in August so we didn’t have super high expectations going into this weekend. Not that we didn’t think it would be nice here, but just figured it would be a step down in some way. This was not a step down, it was just different. It is incredibly beautiful here. Like breathtakingly beautiful. This park is supervised by a string of mountains and hugged by a lake. The park itself is hard to describe because it’s quite big and broken up into separate large areas.

The campground area is made of up of several wooded sites, a beach, a boat launch, trail systems, a nature center and a wicked cool amphitheater. There is no reason to have to leave this part of the park in a three day stay.

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However, you can make your way back over to the center of town for more trails, views and more of Maine just being Maine. It doesn’t matter where you are on state park property, it is beautiful. Mt. Blue State Park almost had a Sebago Lake State Park feel to it but done more the way we personally like it; big on privacy & big on woods. You could easily spend a handful of days here being completely content with what the park has to offer, but you could also use the park as a home-base for exploring the area. Tumbledown Mountain is one of the most hiked mountains in Maine and is just minutes away. Along with several other mountains and countless trails. 

Sometimes it can feel overwhelming at a park because we just want to do a million things, but we didn’t feel that way here because after a few hours, we knew we would be back soon enough. You could visit this park for several years and never do the same thing. This is a repeat park for sure! Our set-up was probably our favorite to-date and our site was right near one of the trails that led to the beach area. But even when we weren’t walking down to the water, we were chasing down woodpeckers or just watching the leaves start to slowly cover the well maintained path. There were sites with electricity and water hookups available when we checked in but we passed on those for more privacy. Our first night, there wasn’t another occupied site in within sight. Saturday only brought in a few more folks which was mind blowing with the weather. But even if every site was taken, it reminded us a little like a larger version of Rangeley State Park in which you could still see your neighbor but you didn’t feel like they were on top of you. 

We loved it so much here that we’ve spent the last 2 weeks on Zillow looking at houses close by. No this wasn’t the first time we’ve visited the area. It’s a hiking paradise but quite often you’re just in and out with an objective in mind and it’s never a sit back and take it in type of visit. But that is what we did on this weekend, we even scratched a planned day hike for a morning visit over to Center Hill; which is part of the state park (you need to drive there from the campground). This is a must see, even if you plan to hike up to any of the near-by summits. Not only is the view spectacular, there is a wonderful mile long hike that loops the immediate area, with even more views tossed it.

This was Eloise’s longest “real” hike without the pack and it was so much fun to witness. Adeline also wanted to be facing front for this one. Another bonus is that Baxter could tag along too! It’s the perfect family spot and not only did we not regret passing on a bigger hike; we knew we made the right choice at this time. 

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We highly recommend that you visit this area and not just the infamous Tumbledown. Yes, that is a bucket list thing for many but it’s often extremely crowded during the summer and fall. There is so much more to do and see and without tons of people. The state park is a no-brainer and after coming out here over the years, not going to the park until now is a little embarrassing. Grading this park is tough though because the layout is so different than all the others so a score of 9.5 Rubies just feels right. Why not a perfect 10? Well you can’t just park your car for the weekend and still explore everything. You do have to go out of your way and drive to get to other parts of the park and that’s OK, but also probably the only thing that could knock it down a half a Ruby. That being said you may find some goodies while driving around. We got our last watermelon of 2019 at a farm stand nearby and it was certainly a 10. We also got some tasty treats from the SkoolHouse Variety post hike and Eloise learned a valuable hiking lesson about replacing those burned calories with something fun and yummy. 

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It is hard to be spontaneous with two little kids so this impromptu weekend was as close as it gets for us. It just felt right to go and in the end it was right to go. Yes, we could have used the free weekend to get things done around the house or catch up on the to-do list but we’d never leave the house for anything if that was the case. Kids or no kids, we all have our internal lists growing in our heads but it’s important every once in a while to block them out and just look at what’s in front of you, and Mt. Blue State Park gives you plenty to look at.