Family Camping at Papoose Pond Resort and Campground

Most people associate Maine with its coastline, which is very beautiful but very busy in the summer months.  By far, our favorite region of Maine for camping is the Western Maine mountains and lakes.  There is less traffic and less hustle and bustle, and for me, that makes for a more relaxing vacation.  There are a large number of campgrounds within an hour and a half or so of our home on some very beautiful lakes, with plenty of nearby mountains for easy to moderate hikes that are perfect for the family.
 

Last week, we went camping with some friends at Papoose Pond Resort and Campground in the Town of Waterford.  Except for a pair of overnight rainstorms, the weather was very pleasant and it was a good week for camping.  This was our first time at this campground, which offers many amenities and seems to be structured to cater to the camper who is staying for a week or two.  We didn't see evidence of the semi-permanent seasonal campers there that are so common in many Maine campgrounds.

Sites and Site Amenities

Papoose Pond offers a wide variety of site configurations to meet the needs of the traveler.  As you'd expect, these include your typical primitive tent sites with fire pit, picnic table, and community water, and trailer sites with three way hookups, picnic table, and fireplace.  Also like many competing campgrounds, Papoose offers rental cabins, but there were more available here than at many other campgrounds I've been to.  If you prefer cabin camping to setting up a tent, this is worthy of checking out.

The picnic shelter in a Kit-N-Bath site.

What was really interesting, though, was the sites in between the "basic" site and the cabin.  On the urging of our friends, we tried out one of Papoose Pond's Kit-n-Bath sites.  These sites have a wooden picnic shelter that is open on three sides (see photo).  One end of this open area is enclosed with open shelves to stash your cooking gear and a counter with a sink, electric cook-top, and outlets.  In behind was a full bathroom with shower, toilet and sink.   For someone who's tenting like we were, this was a pretty remarkable convenience.    As an outdoor cooking enthusiast, I would have been happy using my Coleman Propane stove instead of the cooktop, but the sink with hot and cold running water was awesome for cleanup.  Papoose offers a number of variations on this theme, including sites with covered shelters without power and water, kitchen and bath without a covered picnic table, and even a site with a tree house and a picnic shelter.

Programming and Activities

Papoose Pond has more structured activities and events than we are used to seeing at the campgrounds we frequent.  There were planned sporting events, crafts, and social activities every hour during the day, and movies, concerts, and social events in the evening.  We tend to like to move at our own pace when camping so we didn't partake of many of these events.  We did attend Sunday evening's Rick Charette concert and take advantage of the make your own ice cream sundae special, and our oldest son attended one of two teen dances held that week.  Other than that, the two events we were most interested in, the Pulpit Rock Hike and the Crooked River Canoe Trip left at 9:00 AM - which was earlier than we were ready to hit the road after breakfast each day.  Overall, though, they seemed to offer a wide variety of activities, with something for everyone.

Other Campground Amenities

The campground features a swimming pool and a considerable sandy beach area on the pond with swimming and a fair number of rental canoes, kayaks, and paddle boats.  The pond was small though, so we chose not to use the boats, and instead put our power boat in at the public landing at nearby lake Pennesseewassee in Norway for an afternoon of tubing.  Fishing was somewhat restricted to the "Fishing Lagoon," so fishing, again was done off-site for us.  In addition to the usual camp store there is cafe for fast food favorites and a snack bar near the pool and rec hall. There were a couple of playgrounds for the kids, which seemed a bit small and under-equipped for the size of the campground.  Our youngest enjoyed a couple of games of mini-golf with friends however, and the volleyball court, baseball diamond, and other sporting facilities were frequently busy.  Lastly, on a more mundane level the bath houses, to the extent we had to use them, were clean and well supplied.

Overall we enjoyed our stay at Papoose Pond.  The site amenities were a nice change of pace that made for a relaxing stay and our kids enjoyed the beach.  If you plan to go - I suggest bringing a bicylce.  The campground is quite large and  getting around can be tedious on foot.  Happy camping!