Rangeley Lake State Park — Attraction in Rangeley

I love camping and this place was great. Best view from a camping trip I've had. The way you can see the hills in the distance over the water is absolutely stunning. Bathrooms are cleaned at least once a day keeping them nice and clean and campsites are nicely kept and feel very open and taken care of. The HUGE problem I have is the park rangers never, and I mean NEVER check the trails. The beach trails are difficult to walk on, let alone bike on (which is what my cousin and I always use for travel around state parks). There's an ungodly amount of roots that aren't covered allowing campers to easily trip or sprain an ankle, brush in the way of the trail making it impossible to walk unless you duck, and logs, multiple logs, throughout each of the trails we biked. Luckily the trails are often unused as the beach isn't really a beach as it has no sand and is extremely rocky. However if you wanted to go to the beach (which is reasonable only because it is the only place to swim and get a great view of the lake) you would have to walk along the road where cars might meet up with you as well as it being the longer way around which just isn't worth it. ONE WARNING: DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT WALK THE MOOSE CORRIDOR TRAIL. It can be barely called a trail now because of the lack of care it's hard. There's tons of logs over the trail, lots and lots of roots, extremely dangerous areas, bridges that are so rotten and soaked that the nails are sticking up out of the wood which is EXTREMELY dangerous, and places where there should be bridges (extremely muddy areas) which are easy to slip and fall on. My cousin actually did slip (by literally walking on the trail) and slipped and gashed his knee on an EXTREMELY sharp rock sticking multiple inches off the ground. It was such a bad gash that we had to take his socks off and his shoelaces off to gauze it and put pressure on it. We were also in the middle of the trail so there was no help at all. Luckily there is data there, a little too much for my 'state park camping liking', so we were able to call for help. Now onto some better parts of the park again. The park is so secluded, which is so nice, but it has its downfalls as well. I love how it's separated from everything else near it like stores and other shops but it makes it bothersome to go get food if needed. Not necessarily against the campground though. The layout of the campground is very nice as well. It's one single loop with a trail or two in between allowing easy access for campers on one side to go to the other. Also, a note for people interested, campsites 39 and 21 are some of the better campsites, 21 being easily the best. Site 21 has a great trail to the water and, unlike the other water sites, there's a nice clear spot to put in kayaks or paddle boards. Site 39 is GREAT if you want to sleep or set up multiple hammocks. There were a few good hammock spots right on the edges of the campsite but what me and my friends did was we went probably 5-7 steps behind the site and set up hammocks there. I'll try to attach a photo to this review so you all can see what we did. We called it hobo city lol. To sum it up it's a pretty great campground but the trails suck and the beach is average. You can also just drive to the beach so the trail to it being bad isn't that much of a downside. The Moose Corridor Trail is the biggest downside to the campground in my opinion.

All pictures of sunset were taken...

I had quite a mixed experience with Rangeley Lake State Park

THE GOOD: The scenery was beautiful, the lake and rolling mountainous terrain around it were quite picturesque. Quail hill is definitely worth the 20 minute drive. The campsites were quite close to the water, within walking distance at least, and some even had elec and water which is a nice convenience if you need it. The bathrooms had actual showers and a proper restroom rather than an outhouse so that was a bonus as well.

THE BAD: The actual campsites themselves are quite small. The one I reserved was listed as a medium but it was the size of a small at every other campground I've been to. The campsites were quite rocky as well, at least from my experience. My biggest complaint comes from the swimming aspect. Nowhere on the site for the park does it mention this, at least at the time of my review, but THEY DO NOT ALLOW DOGS IN THE SWIMMING AREA. This would be fine if there was an area in a reasonable distance that allowed dogs to get in the water, but I searched the whole town and surrounding areas to no avail. Asking the ranger at the entrance led to a resounding "nowhere local allows pets". In 90 degree summer heat, heat exhaustion for pets is a serious concern, and while water can keep them cool you would think a lake would have somewhere to let them take a dip to cool off. Definitely something that should be told up front to prospective campers.

Overall I would say Rangeley does offer a picturesque camping getaway, but there are quite a few shortcomings that campers need to be aware of before camping here. I definitely don't think I will be coming back, however it might be your cup of tea if the shortcomings above don't bother you too much. Overall I rate...

Thank goodness I only have a few more days here. It's been a horrible camping trip. We purposely get an electric site for when it's warm and humid out especially in the extreme heat, having us able to use our AC unit in our RV camper. We have been told multiple times that we need to turn off our ac at 8 pm. But.. yes there is a bit, it states in the paper work that only generators and the such by 10 pm because that starts quiet time. So if they are going to change the rules here then I personally think that they should have it in writing, I'm a stickler for the rules and I'm consistently getting a hairy eyeball from my family. I just want it in writing. If they want to stay in a tin can so be it, but I won't. I need to have a cool space to keep my ailments under control. Understandable, yes but why go camping if it's super hot and sticky out. I truly love camping at the state parks, but unfortunately I will never come back here again. I will find other places to camp and I will never come back here again. So sorry, nice people over all but having a state park worker constantly nagging you while you are on vacation and you have paid to use the electricity we should be able to use what we have in our camper. Plus, we never camp for a weekend or a week at a time we always camp for the allowed time...