Best Tent Camping near South Portland, ME

Desert of Maine campground is an excellent choice just 4-5 miles from the heart of Freeport at interstate exit # 22. This campground is well-imagined. Sites are close together, and some are small. There are 2 hike-in sites which are set apart. Wifi is provided throughout the campground and most sites have power. They must have studied "best practices" when designing this lovely campground. 

I booked an extra night.

This is an outdoor experience campground- not a wilderness adventure -- but perfect for young families…especially for those new to camping or those for whom a very sanitary classic bathroom is needed.Children find and entertain each other in the common area.

Sites 19-27 face a shared square with excellent access to the modern and stylish bath house. Other sites have a somewhat further walk. Sites 17-27 are best for tents due to the configuration of the sites.. Tent sites # 2 & # 3 are short walk-in and very private, but lack easy access to the bath house. Almost all sites in this campground have shade and are under a beautiful canopy of old pine, maple and balsam.

Site 24 is lovely & slightly set apart and cars are parked close by but not on the tent site. Site 27 is located down a steep slope and is very private but has difficult access. I would categorize site 27 as a hike-in site, but not # 24.  All sites are generally level and have been graded. Sites have scant privacy in front, but back up to forest. Sites 4, 6,17, 19, 23 & 26 have slightly more space but space is not the defining issue in this campground. RV's that are large should not try this campground. The maintenance is superb; and the thoughtful design of the overall campground is aesthetically pleasing. 

This attractive campground is small-scale and personally managed. 

Ice is available for purchase…as is wood. 

Beware of speed trap on the 2 mile access road between the interstate & campground.

A friend and I decided to camp here before a backpacking trip in the Whites, to cut down on morning-of driving time. Our site, #02 on Loop 2, was in very close proximity to all of the neighboring sites. We had children on several sides, and a rowdy group of adult men on another side. Quiet hours are supposed to start at 10:00pm, but our rowdy male neighbors were up, playing music, talking loudly, and singing, until midnight. Then, just when we thought they were ready to settle in, they turned on a headlamp aimed directly into our tent. We are both very experienced car campers and backcountry campers, but even we struggled to get any rest through all the noise and light. The staff drove by a few times in a golf cart but never stopped to encourage this group to quiet down or use a little etiquette/common sense with their headlamp use. It wouldn't have been so much of a problem if the sites weren't SO close to each other. I attached a photo to show just how closely all the sites are situated; that's my backpacking tent, for scale.

This is an extremely large campground.  It seems that most of them on the coast of Maine are.  We didn't get a very good sight, but the person who answered the phone basically told us that when we called and it was all they had, so I can't say too much about that either (#17).  The sight was small and between the two driveways.  All of the sights seem to have rocky ground, so I recommend a sleep pad and a footprint for your tent so you don't rip the bottom.  

Now, on to the other stuff.  There is a small playground that is weathered but in decent shape.  The pool is lovely and meticulously kept.  The grounds, bathrooms and showers are spotless.  It's 50 cents for 5 minutes to take a shower (unheard of) with hot water.  There is even hot water to wash your dishes next to the bathrooms.

They sell ice, wood ($7) and many "I forgots" in the store (bacon, milk, etc...).  They give you a security card to get into the grounds ($10 deposit).  The campground was SUPER quiet and quiet hours go to 8am (thank you)!  Only an RV about to leave made a ton of noise at 7.

I would go there again.  It was a safe place close to so many things.  The beach and everything else is VERY close but not so close as to be annoying.... 5 minutes at most.

My husband and I took my Dad camping for Father’s Day this year at White Lake State Park Campground. We enjoyed every minute! There were definitely a lot of people there, but there were enough trees between each site to give at least a little bit of privacy. We stayed at site 28 in Area 1 (there are two sets of sites within the campground). Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring with a metal grate. We were about a minute away from a restroom, which was clean and well-maintained. There was also a water spigot across the way from our site.

White Lake is gorgeous. We brought a kayak and a few stand up paddleboards with us to use. There is a sandy beach with lots of space and picnic tables that also looked well-maintained. The beach and swimming area were very popular! Right next to the beach there is a restroom and changing room facility. I believe there is a store on the opposite end.

We really enjoyed our one-night stay at White Lake State Park Campground. We will definitely return!

This campground was in the woods and was well maintained. The campsites definitely felt like they were on top of each other and are pretty small. We picked a medium one and could barely fit 2 tents and 2 cars with a safe distance from the fire. 2 sites were within 15ft of our fire pit. The bathrooms were very clean. The lake was nice too, sandy beaches. For a large portion of our stay it torrentially downpoured. The trees allowed us to canopy a tarp but our fire pit completely flooded and we had to bail it out when the rain finally stopped. If the sites weren't so close together and small I would definitely give this place 5 stars.

Campground Review

Friends and I have started a Memorial Day weekend camping tradition and during a visit here last fall two of us decided this would be our destination. White Lake has large sites, a gorgeous lake with a pair of resident loons, and proximity to the White Mountains National Forest (hiking galore, river, history), the Saco River (tubing, etc.), and Conway/North Conway tourist attractions.

The lake is clear, the swimming area is shallow for quite a distance so you can feel comfortable with kids, and there is a separate boat launch area. If you don’t have your own boats, they offer rentals of kayaks and paddle boats. On the day you leave, you can enjoy the beach, but you will have to park in the registration parking lot. You may want to bring bicycles or plan to walk a lot to get to and from the beach.

There are multiple loops, some offering water views. The water view sites are just that…views. There are some short trails leading to the lake from the sites, but for most of them they are down a little hill. A few of them even offer lean-tos.  Most of them can accommodate smaller RVs as well as tents. There are no hookups, but there is a dump station. Sites are close together. There are also a group camping area and a few family camping sites. Although many of the sites are reservable online, some of them are held back for walk-ins. Our sites are now first-come, first-served, but we reserved them last year. Memorial Day weekend, there were still vacancies, but during my Labor Day visit last year sites were full very early Friday morning. Quirky thing about the sites...the maps and the posts in loop 1 just show the basic number, but in the reservation system, loop one numbers are in the 100s (i.e. site 44 becomes site 144) No pets.

The bathrooms at the beach include flush toilets, but no showers. In the campground there are coin-operated (2 minutes/$0.25), hot and clean showers.  I also noticed that showers are available in the bathroom next to the campground store/office, but they are locked when the office is closed, so I didn’t get a chance to check them out. The bathroom serving our area (we were in A loop, sites 44 & 46) could use some maintenance. The toilets don’t flush well at all; the flushing mechanisms need to be replaced. They need to fix this (it was a problem when the season closed last fall, too) to earn that 5th star)

Our neighbor ran his generator ALL.NIGHT.LONG. the first night, but a ranger spoke with him the next day and he shut it off. He ran it during the 5-8pm time slot after that, but we didn’t have to deal with it overnight again. Glad that they addressed it. Your noise experience will vary depending on your neighbors. There are a lot of families here.

Our sites were large and level, but after we pitched our screen tent we realized there were ground nesting bees all over. They didn’t bother us, but it was disconcerting to see them lining the edge of the screen. A little online research showed us that they nest in the spring. It was late spring, so black flies were our biggest challenge! Plan accordingly.

There are some small stores, a gas station, and a Dunkin Donuts just outside the campground. Full shopping needs can be met in Conway and North Conway. During my two stays here (as an adult; apparently our family camped here when I was a kid, too), we kayaked, swam, hiked to Champney Falls, and another hike in the Ossippee area, and went tubing on the Saco (do this earlier in the year when there’s plenty of water on the river!). Mt Chocura is a great nearby hike.

Product Review: Midland Radio  X-Talker T75VP3 Two-Ray Radio.

As a ranger for the Dyrt, I sometimes  have fun opportunities to try out equipment while camping. For this particular trip, I was camping with several others and we anticipated times when we’d split up for a bit or hike at different paces, so it seemed like a great opportunity to test the Midland Radio X-Talker T75VP3 Two-way radio. I found it more challenging than I anticipated just to decide which radios to test. I had to learn a whole new vocabulary to understand the implications of the different specifications; once I received it, I needed to read the manual to figure out the various menu options and how to make the changes. I have a copy of the manual downloaded to my phone for easy reference!

Here’s why I chose this package:

• 1. I liked that the radios have rechargeable batteries and a charging base, both via USB. If the battery dies and you need a back-up, you can use AAA batteries. They charged quickly and I found the battery life was quite long on stand-by.
• 2. They have long-range capability with high and low power settings, though you need ideal conditions to maximize this.
• 3. I could use it on low power without a license.

4. Weather: you can find the local weather forecast as well as receive weather alerts. I may not have cell service everywhere, but I can generally get the radio feed.

Real life:

It worked well over a mile with a combination of lake and trees. I arrived before others and went off to explore, so I left a radio at camp and asked them to radio me when they arrived. When we went hiking in the White Mountains, part of our group went faster than the others, so to radio allowed us to keep in touch even while traveling separately. These are not the staticky transmissions of my childhood walkie-talkies; messages are transmitted clearly and easily. We didn’t encounter any traffic on the radios, so we didn’t bother with the privacy codes.