An Appalachian Trail Day Hike to Piazza Rock

The highlight of our weekend in the Sugarloaf and Rangeley Lakes region was our afternoon day hike on the Appalachian Trail. There are a number of day hikes available as the AT passes through the area; we chose Piazza Rock.  Piazza Rock is an unusual overhanging horizontal boulder that's part of a glacial deposit of granite deposited on the slope of Saddleback Mountain.  The hike in is approximately 1.8 miles of fairly easy terrain, although it naturally gets quite a bit more vertical - and challenging - for the last quarter mile.

Trailhead

You'll want to park your car at the Maine Appalachian Trail Club's parking lot on Route 4, which 4-5 miles south of Rangeley on the right hand side.  Cross Route 4 and head east on the trail.  For the most part, you'll be following the main AT trail - a white blaze with a dark colored box around it, only branching off in the last quarter mile on the side trail for Piazza Rock, marked with a blue blaze.

You're greeted almost immediately with the first (and biggest) of several water crossings on the trail.  The water here rushes through a channel that appears to have been the site of an old mill wheel.

Appalachian Trail river crossing near Route 4.

Following the Trail

After crossing the river there is quite a steep incline with log stairs which were washed out when we were there.   This made for a fairly difficult start, but after this initial rough spot the trail ascends more gradually through the forest.  It's shady, and quite a comfortable hike which was welcome on the unusually warm Columbus Weekend that we were there.  For the most part, it's an easy walk.  There are, however, a number of minor brooks crossing the trail and some rather long muddy, swampy areas which the trail crosses with log bridges.

Log bridges keep your feet dry on the AT.

For the most part, we found that these were in good repair, and we were thankful for this work by the Maine Appalacian Trail Club.  These areas do seem to go on forever at times, though, and they stop and re-start a couple of times.  The brooks, in most cases, had to be crossed by picking your way across on stones - in some cases this made for some amusing family moments.

The trail crosses a dirt road at a point between two of these log - bridged areas, so it's possible to shorten your hike in if you're more interested in the geological formation itself than the hike.  We didn't research this so I don't know the name of the road.

Appalachian Trail Stop-Over

The trail to Piazza Rock splits off from AT about a mile and a half in.  You can go in several directions at this point, including Piazza Rock, the peak of Saddleback Mountain and more.  One feature of this trail junction that is worthy of a pause to mention is the Piazza Rock campsite - another project maintained by the M.A.T.C.  The site features a number of tent platforms that groups can use when hiking along the AT, as well as a lean-to for use by through hikers and most importantly for the day hiker, a clean toilet facility.  The site is a few hundred feet past where the Piazza Rock trail splits off, but it's worth pausing to check out, even if you're not in need of its facilities.  I'd especially recommend visiting the lean-to and browsing through the site log, where day hikers and through hikers alike have written about their visits to the site.  Please be sure to leave the log where you found it, and the site as you found it!

The Piazza Rock campsite lean-to.

Piazza Rock

The final hike in to Piazza Rock gets steeper almost immediately after the side trail breaks off from the AT, but it's a short climb.  Yet another brook babbles along the side of the trail here.  I indulged in a brief movie of it on my phone:

Piazza Rock itself is something to see.  It's a giant slab of granite cantilevered horizontally out from the mountainside.   There are even a number of small trees growing on top of it.  It's possible to get on top of the stone, but we didn't try for safety reasons with our kids.

Piazza Rock

Like many similar deposits of granite boulders, the area around Piazza Rock features a number of crevices that kids can climb through and explore.  My boys had quite a bit of fun in them.  Remember though that there are a lot of steep places where you can fall, and keep a close eye on children as they explore.

We had to climb through this crevice to access the top of Piazza Rock.

The boys didn't want to leave, but we hiked back out in the same direction from which we had come.  I definitely recommend this hike for families visiting the Rangeley area.

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