Our second camping trip of the season brought us to Peaks-Kenny State Park in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine. This is a beautiful, small 56 site campground on the shore of Sebec Lake.
Setting Up our Campsite
We checked in, picked up some Junior Ranger books and headed to our campsite. We stayed at site 36.
It was a bit buggy due to standing water in the thick woods surrounding us. We’d opt for a different site next time, a few even have electricity and water. After a quick set up we had some lunch and then headed down to the lake.
Checking out the Lake
There are two walking paths at the campground that lead to the public beach area.
After a short walk through a well maintained trail in the woods we ended up at a beautiful beach area perfect for kids. It was shallow and sandy with a view of the mountains, surrounded by trees on the edge of the lake around.
The kids swam and played in the sand at the beach for a couple of hours.
Maine State Park Passport Station
After drying off we headed in search of the Passport Station. We easily located it and got our very first passport stamp! When the Maine State Parks Passport Program first began, my Dad set a goal to get every stamp in the book in one summer. He was successful! This was pre-kid days for me and I joined him for quite a few of these trips. They are some of my favorite memories made with my father. We camped at Rangeley Lake State Park in his 1970’s motorhome along with my dog, Rocky, visited the beautiful Lily Bay State Park and discovered Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth (where Jamie and I later decided to have our wedding). Peaks-Kenny was one of my top three favorite parks when doing these adventures with my Dad, so getting our first stamp here so many years later with my kids was pretty special.
We headed back to the campsite to change and pick up Pats Pizza in Dover-Foxcroft for dinner. After eating pizza on the car ride back to the campground ( I guess we were hungry) we sat by the campfire, worked a bit on the Junior Ranger Book and read The Heartwood Hotel, Home Again. We are on the fourth and final book in the series.
Guilford, Maine
The next morning we had breakfast and decided to head out for a drive to explore the surrounding area. We ended up in Guilford. We stopped at Craft Cafe for coffee.
Next we stopped at Spencer Bakery and Cafe for donuts.
We took our newly acquired goodies to a local playground to eat and then played for a bit.
After an hour or so it started to heat up so we headed back to the campground, stopping at Herring Brothers Meats where Jamie picked up a rib eye, that he grilled for Anika and me for dinner.
More Beach Time
Back at the campsite we had lunch and then headed down to the beach area where we spent the afternoon. This is the perfect beach area for kids of any age. They could have stayed here all day. There are more secluded places to swim off the trail along the lake, but honestly for 4th of July weekend we were pleasantly surprised how few people were here. Peaks-Kenny also has various hiking trails that we plan to access on our next trip.
After a few hours we headed back to the campsite where Jamie started a fire and the kids worked on their Junior Ranger Book some more. The evening looked like dinner, s’mores, sitting by the fire and finishing up Heartwood Hotel.
The next morning we packed up, stopped at the ranger station to have the kids books checked and they received their Peaks-Kenny Junior Ranger Patch before heading home.
This is one of those campgrounds that I can see us visiting yearly. It’s an easy trip here, plenty to do at the campground itself without ever leaving and it’s relatively quiet and not busy for such a beautiful spot.
Wonderful read!…filled with fabulous memories mingling with the precious present! So happy it was a great trip!
Thank you!