Togue Pond Gatehouse — Attraction in T2 R9 WELS

If you're looking to climb Mount Katahdin, this is where you enter.

There are three ways for you to climb the mountain: snagging a campsite, reserving a parking permit, or getting to this gate extremely early in the morning. The first two options are your best bet if you can pull it off. Campsites and parking permits can be reserved through the Baxter State Park website; just book a spot at Katahdin Stream, Abol, or Roaring Brook and you'll be good to go. The issue for out of state folks is that Maine residents get first dibs. Non-residents can book parking permits 14 days in advanced, but they're often sold out by then.

The third option is to drive to this gate extremely early and get in line. At around 7:00am, the rangers will start selling the parking permits of anyone that hasn't shown up yet. We talked to one ranger, and he told us that only 5 permits were sold the day before. Cars line up extremely early to get these permits. We showed up around 3:30 in the morning, and we were the fourth car waiting at the gate.

You can't show up too early, though. They don't want people showing up the night before and just sleeping in the car. I can't imagine anyone is going to kick you out if you show up after midnight, but we talked to a guy that tried to line up around 10pm, and a ranger told him that he had to leave.

We asked if someone could just drop us off and pick us up, and the rangers said that they don't allow that. That being said, I don't see how they would enforce that rule since they don't check for parking permits before you climb; you just leave the permit in your car.

One tip: they don't care how many people are in a single car. One ranger told us that they're not there to enforce state law. There's a small parking lot before the gatehouse. You can park an extra car there and have everyone pile into a car that got in line early. That's what we did. We crammed about a dozen folks inside an SUV, and nobody batted an eye.

Totally worth it though. The...

When you get to the gatehouse have a plan in place for what you want to do. Then have a second plan in place in case the parking lot is full that you want to go to. You can reserve parking spaces online for $5. They open at 6am and the popular parking is full by 7am. You can also go back to the gatehouse mid afternoon and ask if your desired parking lot has spaces at that time. They are very helpful at the gatehouse and can suggest things to go see. We were told about the ledges picnic area. This is a wonderful place to eat lunch, cool off and swim at mile 15 on the tote road. Bring chairs, there is only one picnic table and it isn't near the falls. There is hardly any...

I love, love, love Baxter State Park. Perhaps one of my favorite places on Earth especially if you have the opportunity to hike Mount katahdin. having said that, and this does not detract at all from the stars but was a point of contention that I took having visited during the pandemic. People don't follow the rules! Baxter State Park has done a fantastic job of posting there requirements regarding mask wearing and social distancing In a way that everybody is sure to see them however I must have passed a hundred people on the trails most of which were not wearing masks or keeping their distance. Had I been aware of this prior to making the trip, I would not have...