LegendShin Pond Village Campground
Good experience after our RV had to be pulled out of the mud.
Shin Pond is this sprawling mix of campground, cabins, restaurant, event space, gas station, convenient store, and off-road vehicle rentals. The campground has about 30 campsites and is separated into two sections bisected by Route 159 (which is busy with loud logging trucks and UTV’s). One side has 50-amp campsites and cabins and the other side is 30-amp. There is a separate area for tents that is really pretty and sits along a brook that divides north and south Shin Ponds.
Sites are grass with very little gravel and, as we found out, they can be very soft. We pulled into our site (#21) and before we knew it our 45’ (47,000 lbs) RV was stuck. Unbeknownst to us, three inches of rain had recently fallen and our site which was downhill was saturated. The campground owner had to pull us out with his huge tractor which as we found out was not the first time a camper had to be pulled out of a soft site in that campground. Luckily, it was a pull-in site so he could attach a chain to the hitch on the back of our RV as there is no way to pull from the front without causing damage.
All sites have water, picnic table, and fire pit. There is no sewer but there is a dump station and a “blue boy” for you to use and dump your own tanks. They do not have a pump-out service. The dump station is easy to access and has a hose for you to flush your tanks and a dedicated potable water spigot. The dump station is at the back of a busy parking lot that serves the restaurant, laundry, bath/shower house, and the fuel pump so it can be quite busy and congested. We didn’t eat at the restaurant but others said it was very good. There is also a well-stocked store which sells a variety of souvenirs, food, beer, ice cream, and camping necessities.
No cell or internet reception with our Verizon phone. The campground does have wifi but the signal was not strong enough to get reception reliably at our site. You pretty much have to be at the office in order to get it but that’s ok because they have lots of picnic tables and places to sit.
Shin Pond rents Polaris UTV and snowmobiles, canoes, and kayaks in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter. We went on a UTV ride one day and were treated to some beautiful views. Just a few miles down the road is a short hiking trail leading to Shin Pond Falls and another trail that runs along the Seboeis river which is a beautiful hike. The campground is close to the northern entrances to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and Baxter State Park which is the major reason why we stayed there. We loved exploring these parks where you have access to beautiful hiking trails and lakes and ponds and is not as crowded as the southern areas. Note that dogs are not allowed in Baxter State Park and there are restrictions on vehicle sizes. The nearest town is Patten (about 15 minutes away) and has a hardware store, gift shop, full-service grocery, fuel, restaurants, and the Lumberman’s Museum.
