Best Glamping near Brownville Junction, ME

I have been going there for a long time. I go 3 times a year for 5 weeks. It is a rustic campground with beautiful views of the mountains in Baxter State Park. They have a store and water and showers. The lake is fly fishing only and it only has native maine brook trout and it doesn't get stocked. They also have a boat launch.

Located just a few miles outside of Baxter State Park, POC offers a few spots for small RV’s, tent sites, lean-tos, and a few camping cabins, each with a picnic table and fire ring.  And, the property has an amazing view!

There are hot showers, clean bathrooms, a dishwashing sink, and even a game room with pool tables and a small bar. You can rent canoes and gear to paddle on the lake, with a great view of Mt. Katahdin. Or, sign up for a guided canoe or rafting trip.

Fall is one of the best times to be here…no bugs, less people, and full of autumn color! Be ready for wind and cold days though.

Your last stop for groceries and gas is in Millinocket, so be sure to stock up before you make your way to the park. 

All for $11 per person/night! Haven’t seen these amenities for this low price anywhere else in Maine.

Small campground with 36 RV and tent sites located just a couple of miles from downtown Greenville. The owners are very nice and helpful and are always busy working in the campground. The campground has lots of large trees and narrow roads which make it very difficult for big rigs. In fact, there was only one of two sites in the front section that would fit our 45’ motorhome. The back section of the park was way too tight for us to navigate. 

Our site (#25) was a long pull thru that sloped down in the front and took a bit for us to get level and our front steps were pretty high off the ground. We had 50-amp electric which worked fine and a water hookup. Since we had a clear view to the sky, we were able to use our satellite television. Due to the campground’s location in a remote part of Maine, I’m sure our over-the-air antenna would not have worked. They did have wifi which worked great at out site. The tent sites are located off to themselves in a wooded area not too far from the bathrooms. The back section of the campground is heavily treed with nice amounts of shade. Most of the sites have good separation from the neighboring site and privacy. The fire pits have grates next to them so you can cook over the fire. There are garbage cans scattered about the campground which makes it easy to dump your trash. No sewer at any sites but there is a dump station and they offer a pump out service for$20. We contemplated using the dump station but the roads were so tight that it would have been difficult for us to pull into it and our RV would have scrapped lots of trees. There are apple trees everywhere in the campground. The owner said he does rake them but so apparently it was a banner year, so there were tons of apples which meant that you did get a smell from the rotting ones. The bathrooms were old and pretty nasty and we didn’t want to use the toilet, much less shower there. Despite having a pull thru site, we had to back out because we would have had to go thru the back part of the park and because of the low hanging trees without scraping our RV. Also, the turn into the campground from the main road (Route 6) is very tight and we ended up having to go into the other lane and take up the whole road in order to make the turn in. 

We did like the proximity of this campground to downtown Greenville. The area is beautiful with great hiking, boating, and fishing. Just a short drive away is the east outlet of the Kennebec River which is renowned for its fly fishing. Some touristy things to do are a boat ride on the Katahdin (an old steam ship), ferry ride over to Mt. Kineo for hiking with a great view, and a drive out to the B-52 crash site.

This was the first campsite along our Maine North Woods canoe adventure – about 4 miles from the Lobster Launch. It is a gorgeous campsite along the sandy shores of Lobster Lake, with plenty of room for a group of 8-10 people.  It's called Lobster Lake because it's shaped like a lobster claw.  

Has a huge picnic table, separate food prep area, fire ring and toilet (bring your own TP). Bring plenty of fresh water (though you can filter from a stream feeding the lake/river, but we were advised not to use the lake water, even filtered). Very easy access to the water for swimming, hauling gear up, etc. 

Note about costs: Getting here is quite a journey, but ooohh so worth it. It’s on the way to nowhere, you have to pay to get through the gate along the Golden Road, pay a daily road access fee, and daily camping fee. And, then there’s the shuttle for your vehicle. It’s expensive, but if you go with a group and share costs, it’s a treat!  Maybe a once in a lifetime adventure for some people.

As you make the final approach to Greenville from the south, the Moosehead Family Campground will be on the right. The first time I arrived, I missed the turn-in and had to do a u-turn.

You can make reservations online, although they're contemplating some site changes, so for now, you'll need to call to make reservations for 2019. Season opens around Memorial Day and when I visited midweek in late June it was still quiet. Most sites are back-in, though they offer some pull throughs, and most are wooded or in the orchard. Rates vary depending on the dates, special events, and utilities you select. They provide a discount for a week-long stay. Bathrooms are clean with odorless composting toilets. Although they don't offer sewer connections, there is a dump station and they also offer collection service. They offer wifi and I had good service with Verizon (you'll lose coverage just a little farther out of town). Hosts are friendly and offer free hot drinks in the office on weekend mornings. You will hear some road traffic.

There's a small playground, but the real playground is beyond the campground. Explore the many small ponds in a kayak or canoe, ride your ATV on area trails, capture wildlife with your camera, take on the Pinnacle Pursuit, or cruise Moosehead Lake on the Steamboat Katahdin. Drie and hour and you can go white-water rafting. Moose come out at the Maine DOT, so you don't have to go far to see some, though the ponds and backroads provide a better background. There's a firetower nearby that provides a nice view, too. It is a little far if you want to drive toward Kokadjo and smaller, remote pounds to look for moose on your own in the early morning hours, but if you are joining a wildlife viewing tour out of Greenville, it's convenient.

How to describe what a slice of heaven looks like? The setting is just spectacular, beautiful beyond words! The owners, Whitney and Norman, are just is amazing. They aren't just the owners, but everything they do shows how much they love this very special place and are so aware that they are great stewards of nature's splendor present here.

We went for a 10 day trip in July and a 5 day trip in August, staying on a waterfront / lean to site. Like most of the other waterfront sites, we had a nice, sandy beach on our site. The water is very shallow and the depth increases very slowly. We could walk about 100 feet before the water was chest high. This would be perfect for kids!

The site was massive, huge and my tiny pop up (1990 Coleman Columbia) almost looked funny on the site, like it was lost in all that space! The lean too was bigger!! All of the sites are grassy and flat. The waterfront sites are mostly sunny, but remember that this campground is deep in the north Maine woods and high temperatures are moderate - high 70's, low 80's.

Seriously, I am struggling to find words descriptive enough to capture the beauty of this campground and specifically our camp site!! It is beyond spectacularly beautiful -- the water is crystal clear, the mountains in the distance, the loons, eagles, deer, moose AND THE STARS!!! Wow!! I get goosebumps now just remembering how incredible the night sky looked -- no words come close to describe the majesty of that!!!

Only an hour of internet a day, several hours of electricity and it is wonderful! It was so relaxing to be able to disconnect and we even skipped the one hour of internet a few days. For a more details, check out my review on popupportal.com.

 There are a few times in your travels when you find someplace you never want to leave. It’s the kind of place where you pull in and it just feels right and we found ourselves at the registration desk extending your stay…and again…and again. The Birches Resort and Campground in Rockwood, Maine was that slice of paradise we absolutely loved. 

The Birches is perched on Moosehead Lake about 30 minutes north of Greenville which is a pretty small town (we’re talking population 1,600) with a few restaurants, a fly fishing shop, a great grocery/outdoor/camping/clothing store and a scattering of interesting attractions like an old passenger ship offering lake excursions. There is a ferry over to Mt. Kineo which has spectacular hiking and definitely worth spending an afternoon. There is great fishing in the area in numerous rivers and lakes. 

The Birches has a magnificent historic lodge dating back to the 1930’s that is warm and comforting and smells of wood burning fires, fresh coffee, and salty bacon. There are only a handful of campsites (for RV’s and tents) and a bunch of cabins all with great views. Don’t be expecting to have all your creature comforts of television, wifi, and phone service because they are nonexistent or sketchy at your site. However, the lodge provides all those services where you can enjoy them by the fire or at the bar. There is also a full-service restaurant serving three meals a day with delicious comfort food like Thanksgiving turkey dinner, slow roasted prime rib, and French onion soup. RV sites can be a little tight for larger RVs but we were able to manage. The best campsite (#5) backs up to the lake so your patio and fire pit are right there on the water and provide spectacular sunrises. Our site was 30-amp which was fine for us as we were there in October and didn’t need air conditioning. Since no one else was coming into the site next to us, we were allowed to pull in such that we took up two spots and overlooked the marina. There was water but no sewer however the dump station was easy to access and never very busy since the campground is so small. The tent sites are located farther away from the lodge and facilities but are spacious and private with great water views. The sites are surrounded by trees so you get some shade if you want or can be in the open sunny areas. Each tent site has its own garbage can so you don’t have to trek over to the dumpster. There are also picnic tables, rock-lined fire rings, low electric hook-up, and a water spigot. The restroom/showers were older but clean and we did not mind showering there which meant we didn’t have to pack up the RV and dump our tanks during our stay. They do have a hot tub for those who like to soak in steaming water. 

We absolutely loved our stay at the Birches. Having the lodge for warm fires, cold beer, and hot meals was a definite plus. There are so many outdoor activities between hiking, fishing, paddling, and just enjoying the natural beauty. There are boat rentals and seaplane flights you can book for sightseeing and a launch for boats/paddle craft. We will definitely be back.

My wife and I went up during Columbus Day weekend for some fall fishing and leaf peeping. We had a tent site that had tons of room. Camp store was great. Camp is just outside of Greenville so it’s super easy to go into town if you forgot anything. The only thing I wasn’t a fan of was I could hear the road noise from rt.6. In my opinion if I’m headed up to moosehead I would want to camp in the middle of the woods. But overall we had a great time.

Campground Review

I headed to the Millinocket area because I wanted to explore the new Katahdin Woods & Waters (KWW)National Monument, Baxter SP, ponds and byways. Staying at Wilderness Edge proved to be an ideal location with full amenities. It’s convenient to each of these areas without requiring an extensive drive to any of them. My visit was very early in the season ( late May/early June) and the trails to peaks at Baxter state Park were still closed, so it was quiet. The sites are in two sections, with tenters up the hill in an area I did not have time to explore, and a lower section with hookups for RVs. The RV sites offer electrical and water. The location of the hookups is somewhat unusual and inconsistent. My site had the connections on the right side of my camper once I had backed it in, so I had to be careful about placement or have longer cords. It then made sense why Marcel explained that some campers like to park parallel to the camp road to create some privacy,

My site (6) was large and level, backing up to the woods and with trees between the sites providing some privacy. There were no sites directly opposite mine as the loop road turned and went up a hill. The very clean bathrooms are up the hill, providing free hot showers and also a dishwashing sink.

There’s a small camp store with a selection of necessities, just in case you need a map or forgot a backpack, etc. They’ll deliver firewood to your site. There was wi-fi available, strongest near the bathroom, but I had more than adequate cell phone coverage (Verizon) at my site, that I did not need to use the wifi. There’s a pool and a play area near the entrance.

This is not a campground packed with seasonal sites; they only have 2 seasonal campers. Instead, the campground fills with families, singles, couples, looking for a quiet camp setting with amenities. The amenities do come at a price, costing more than other campgrounds, but also providing more.

If you want to explore, the Discover Katahdin app is great for identifying hikes or paddles, etc. so be sure to install it to help with your planning. It’s also worth stopping by the Moose Prints Gallery in Millinocket. Anita provided some excellent suggestions for wildlife watching and paddling. If you’d like a guide, Marcel is happy to offer small tours.

In town there are a variety of shops, including groceries, dollar stores, and hardware.

Product Review: GCI Outdoors Compact Camp Table 20

As a ranger with The Dyrt I sometimes get to test and review camping equipment. On this trip, I was able to review the GCI Outdoors Compact Camp Table 20 (it also comes in a larger, 25” size). This is a great little table with telescoping legs (love the squeeze mechanism to get them to collapse), giving you two height options while occupying very small space in your vehicle while traveling. You may find yourself using it for more than just camping (I saw one in a picture of a recent tailgate party). It’s aluminum top allows you to place a hot pot on it. It can handle a substantial weight and doesn’t feel wiggly. It’s great for dinner by the campfire!