Western Maine Lakes, Mountains

This is one of the most interesting and scenic sections of the state. Halfway between the Equator and the North Pole and larger than New Hampshire and Vermont combined, this Western Lakes and Mountains region is bordered by another country and state, it has four of Maine’s best-known ski areas, has no less than six of Maine’s remaining nine wooden covered bridges, and it hosts no less than five Maine agricultural fairs. In the north stretching all the way from Coburn Gore on the border with Quebec and the Sebago mountains to the south, the area is bordered and crossed by four of Maine’s designated Scenic Highways (Routes 16/27, 17, 26 and 4), many of them leading to no less than 11 golf courses, all within an hour’s drive from Bethel (the fall foliage is so spectacular around the course here it’s distracting!). The region is enjoyed in all four seasons by all who treasure a pristine, uncrowded environment. Fishing families, hikers, campers, swimmers, canoeists, kayakers, mountain bike aficionados, hunters, wild life photographers and leaf-peepers, skiers, snowmobilers and dog-sledders, all return here year after year. Throughout are all manner of lodges, inns, hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, cottage rentals sporting camps and campsites to choose from, and visitors appreciate spectacular views from many restaurants and eating places while they feast on local game, meats and fish, home-grown produce and baked goods.
The countryside ranges from Naple’s and Sebago Lake’s farmland in the southwest through the mineral-rich Oxford Hills into the foothills of the White Mountains and the Mahoosuc Range around Bethel, and finishes in the wilderness around 6,000-acre Rangeley Lake, five other lakes and dozens of ponds in the vicinity. Named for landowner James Rangeley, the town is the area’s cultural hub. Leading to it, Route 17 is an official Scenic Highway for 32 miles. Rangeley’s 691-acre State Park and in-town Lakeside parks offer fishing, camping, tennis, a playground, boating swimming and snowmobiling. Rangeley Lakes Historical Society has an extensive collection of artifacts, records and photographs about the 19th-century resort and sporting camp era, railroads, logging, fishing and hunting. Rangeley Lakes Logging Museum on Route 16 features vintage logging equipment and paintings showing 1920 camp life in the Kennebago area. Norway-Newry-South Paris is the center for rare minerals; Maine State’s official gemstone, pink and green tourmaline, is found here. Local concerns rent or sell equipment to try your hand at rock-hunting.

The six Rangeley Lakes surrounded by mountains freeze until mid-May and snow blankets everywhere here for six months. Cross-country skiers start to cut trails in mid-November and downhill skiers enjoy until April 4,120-foot Saddleback Mountain near Rangeley on Maine’s section of the Appalachian Trail. Sunday River’s ski area in the year-round resort town of Bethel has eight mountain peaks, a mountain bike park and free handicapped skiing; 44,237-foot Sugarloaf is between Bigelow and the Carrabassett Valley, and the family-oriented resort of Shawnee Peak is six miles west of Bridgton. From December to April snowmobilers get to ride more 150 miles of well-groomed trails connecting all of Maine, New Hampshire and Canada. Bigelow Mountain’s West Peak in the spectacular 35,000-acre Bigelow Preserve east of Stratton, eight miles northwest of Sugarloaf on Routes 16 and 27, is one of 10 Maine summits exceeding 4,000 feet, and there are 30 miles of trails near forested lowlands, ponds, marshes and barren alpine areas.

Weather, fires, floods and/or vandals have reduced to nine Maine’s once more than 100 covered bridges – a couple were even moved or destroyed to make room for modern steel and concrete structures. Since 1985 the Maine Department of Transportation’s Covered Bridge Department has maintained these historic bridges with unique designs. Porter Bridge was built in 1876 a half mile south of Porter by that town and Parsonsfield. Babb’s Bridge; Maine’s oldest, built in 1843 2.5 miles north of South Windham over the Presumscot River, was burned by vandals in 1973 but rebuilt and reopened in 1976. The Hemlock Bridge of 1857, three miles northwest of East Fryeburg, crosses an old channel of the Saco River. It has been estimated that more paint has shown the Sunday River Bridge on canvas than has ever been brushed on its venerable wooden timbers! Known as The Artist’s Bridge, it was built in 1872 at Newry about four miles northwest of North Bethel. The Lovejoy Bridge, Maine’s shortest at 70 feet, was built over the Ellis River at South Andover in 1883; and the Bennett Bridge has spanned the Magalloway River a mile west of Wilson’s Mills since 1901.

The earliest of the fairs in this region or just beyond its borders is the World’s Fair at North Waterford, near Norway and South Paris, Litchfield Fair in Litchfield between Monmouth and Gardiner, Oxford County Fair at Oxford, one at the county seat of Farmington, and Fryeburg Fair, Maine’s largest, is the latest in the state. (See this Guide’s Calendar for dates.)

The mills at Rumford on Route 2 utilize Maine timber, an important part of Maine’s economic lifeline. Hikers, cross-country skiers and snowmobilers revel in Mt. Blue State Park, eight miles from Weld on Route 142 north of Rumford. It’s 3,187 feet to Mt. Blue’s wooded summit with its fine mountain views. To the southeast is Wilton’s Farm and Home Museum, and golf may be played at Wilton Lake Country Club. Farmington was the birthplace of the internationally-renowned Wagnerian opera diva Lillian Norton (1857-1914), and at the Nordica Homestead (Nordica being Norton’s professional name) you can see news clippings from her extraordinary career, her costumes and jewels, and the gifts she received from notables as diverse as the Emperor of China and Diamond Jim Brady.

In the south of the region, children’s camps ring the 44.8-square-mile Sebago Lake, Maine’s second largest body of water after Moosehead and the original home of the landlocked salmon. This deepest of Maine lakes is a favorite of fishermen who also angle many other ponds rivers, streams and lakes in the vicinity. Scenic Route 114 along the lake’s western side leads to 1,300-acre Sebago Lake State Park between South Casco and Naples. Winding through the park is the Songo River, with sand beaches, swimming, hiking, boating and fishing. At Naples the Songo Lock provides access into Long Lake and trips may be taken from here on the 92-foot sternwheeler, the Songo River Queen. Past Naples on Route 302 lies Bridgton, where 50 lakes can be seen from the summit of Pleasant Mountain, 10 within the township itself. Sandy bottomed, the calm and clear Saco River winds through 40 miles of woods and fields, has sandy beaches and many tent and campsites.The river has its origin in Saco Lake, west of Mt. Washington, eventually becoming a larger waterway in the fertile western Maine valleys to Fryeburg. Canoe and swim in the Saco River here.