Damariscotta Lake State Park is located in Jefferson, Maine and not in the more well known town of Damariscotta, aka the oyster capital of New England. A tad confusing at first but when you see that Damariscotta Lake is a whopping 10 miles long and pretty much runs the distance between the two towns, it makes much more sense. Still, that’s about a 20 minute drive by car, and from Portland to the park, it was an hour and 15 minute ride for us on a very toasty July weekend. 

How do you know your children are spoiled by where you live? About 45 minutes into our ride that morning Eloise said, “why is it taking so long for us to get to the beach today?” What a life, huh? But she is right because Crescent Beach and Ferry Beach State Parks are a couple of our favorites and they are only 30 minutes from our home. Driving for close to 90 minutes is a bit unusual for our crew when it comes to hitting the ocean or lake for the day. We don’t have many day trips left on this good ole mission of ours and Damariscotta Lake State Park was our final beach one. Certainly not a tough one to pull off but it was #31 for Maine State Parks since we started this journey just under three and half years ago. 

Even pre-Covid19 it seems like this park’s parking lot is one that would fill quickly on a hot summer day, so given many of the new guidelines in place at locations where lots of humans congregate, there are tight restrictions at the most popular state parks this year. We are 100% onboard with this but driving this distance with two little kids on a 90 degree day, only to be turned away at the gate would have been disappointing to say the least. That’s why the state preaches to have a Plan B, and you should! We went there early and with fingers crossed, we were able to roll right in but the place was filling up fast. Later in the day, we did see some cones put out and a line was starting to form at the entrance, but by the time we left the cones were gone and others were coming in as some left. To be perfectly honest, whether it was 50% capacity or whatever number they cap it off here, it was perfect. The beach is small and it felt full but not too packed, so given the pandemic we are all living through, it never once felt concerning and it certainly didn’t feel inappropriate being there as a family. Everyone was spaced out, cooling off, and it had a busy but safe feeling to it; which is also what we all want to see for these locations during the summer months. 

It was very hot the day before and this day was much of the same. We had one objective, to beat the heat. If your intention is to swim all day, then this state park might be one of the best to accomplish that. All of us swam and not just the kids; our beach chairs kind of looked depressed and lonely on the sand. Every write up you’ll find about this park says how it is a Midcoast favorite for swimming and picnicking. We weren’t able to find the temperature of the water afterwards but it was absolute bath water temps. The lake floor was about as soft, smooth and clean as it gets. The water is shallow for a long ways out before it starts to get deep which is so fun for littles. Waves came and went with the rare sighting of a passing boat. Eloise’s swimming lessons were a hard stop back in March with much of everything in the world, so we have been making it up as we go all summer in any and all bodies of water. The comfort and calmness of this lake made it the ideal setting to work on a few things but also…play, play, play. 

This park checked all the normal boxes with clean bathrooms and changing areas, a playground, group shelter for larger gatherings and so on. There was another standout besides being in the water. The picnic table layout was very well done. It’s like early settlers landed here and said we just want to swim and do lunch. There was a dog friendly section which we hadn’t seen since Lake St. George State Park. They also tossed in a lifeguard for good measure!

We would drive the extra distance to swim here again, it was that enjoyable. It is easy to see why people who live nearby pack the parking lot on a regular basis. We went from feeling like we were having to drive out to this park because we haven’t visited it yet to feeling quite lucky to be able to sneak in and experience it. Before being forced out of the water and packing up, we asked Eloise how many Rubies she would give this park and she didn’t hesitate, “A LOT!” The swim/lunch combo deal definitely was more than what we bargained for. 

Normal day trips for us always include fun stops along the way for meals, treats or shopping and we try to highlight these lesser known places. It actually has turned out to be one of the more fun and unexpected added joys while driving all over Maine and visiting state parks. Unfortunately, with the coronavirus, we have really limited our stops. In a normal year, we wouldn’t have made it very far from the park before stopping at Jefferson Scoops; which is located about 400 feet from the entrance to the park. The line was too long on this afternoon and it didn’t feel right so instead we swooped into a Portland favorite of ours near home…Libs Dairy. Adeline didn’t seem to mind the change in plans or the added wait. She just always seems content that she was invited to the party.

These are those summer beach days you don’t forget, even as the years pass.