🥾 ActiveLong weekend · from Boston, MA
Maine Lakes, Rangeley Ridge & Western Foothills
Maine's western lake district is New England's least-known significant wilderness — a 1,000-square-mile region of glacial lakes, boreal forest, and mountains that see a fraction of the visitors of the White Mountains or Acadia. Rangeley Lake sits at 1,800 feet surrounded by peaks above 4,000 feet; the Appalachian Trail crosses the region's crest at Saddleback Mountain.
Day 1 — Bethel, MEDay 2 — Rangeley, MEDay 3 — Sugarloaf & Kingfield, ME
Day 1 — Bethel, ME
Day 1 — Bethel, ME
🚗 3 hr 5 min driving📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Boston, MA → Grafton Notch State Park
2 hr 45 min8:00 AM → 10:45 AM
Drive north via I-95 and US-2 through New Hampshire and into western Maine.
Screw Auger Falls & Mother Walker Falls
★ 3.4Grafton Notch State Park contains the most dramatic waterfalls in Maine — Screw Auger Falls drops 25 feet into a 15-foot granite pothole, and Mother Walker Falls is a half-mile gorge of cascades through polished granite. The park sits in a glacially-carved valley between Old Speck Mountain and Baldpate Mountain on the Appalachian Trail; the combined trail complex covers 10+ miles of serious terrain.
10:45 AM📍 See location
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Lunch
🚗
Drive
Grafton Notch State Park → Sunday River Brewing Company
15 min11:45 AM → 12:00 PM
Sunday River Brewing Company
★ 3.9A ski-town brewpub at the base of Sunday River resort, producing ales and lagers designed for the outdoor-sports crowd — 12 house taps, a wood-fired menu, and a deck facing the river. The Bottle Rocket IPA and the seasonal Equinox Amber are the consistent favorites; the kitchen's fish and chips and the pulled pork sandwich are calibrated for the post-hike appetite.
12:00 PM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
🚗
Drive
Sunday River Brewing Company → Artist's Covered Bridge
5 min1:00 PM → 1:05 PM
Artist's Covered Bridge
★ 4.7The most photographed covered bridge in New England, an 1872 Paddleford truss bridge over the Sunday River in North Bethel — the autumn foliage above the red-painted bridge was Winslow Homer's subject and has been reproduced on calendars and Christmas cards for a century. The swimming hole beneath the bridge is active from June through September.
1:05 PM📍 See location
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Evening
Millbrook Tavern — Sunday River
★ 4.2A restaurant in the Sunday River resort's Barker Mountain base lodge, serving New England cuisine year-round with a focus on Maine ingredients — lobster rolls, house-smoked salmon, craft beers from local Maine producers. The dining room has mountain views; the outdoor deck operates through foliage season.
5:00 PM📍 See location
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Bethel Inn Resort
A classic Maine resort dating to 1913, with a full-service spa, a golf course, and 200 acres on the hillside above Bethel village. The main building's wraparound porch faces the Sunday River valley; the inn's location makes it the most comfortable base for Sunday River and Grafton Notch hiking.
Day 2 — Rangeley, ME
Day 2 — Rangeley, ME
🚗 1 hr 15 min driving📍 5 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Bethel, ME → Rangeley Lake State Park
1 hr 15 min8:00 AM → 9:15 AM
Drive north via Route 26 through Errol and along the Rangeley Lakes chain.
Saddleback Mountain — Appalachian Trail
★ 4.7Saddleback (4,120 ft) and the Horn (4,041 ft) form a 2-mile above-treeline ridge on the Appalachian Trail accessible from the ski area base lodge via the 8.4-mile round-trip Appalachian Trail approach. The ridge is above treeline for the full 2 miles between summits; the views encompass the Rangeley Lakes chain, the Bigelow Range to the east, and the Canadian border to the north.
9:15 AM📍 See location
🍽️
Lunch
Lakeside Youth Hostel & Tavern
★ 4.5A Rangeley institution since 1966 occupying a converted lakeside lodge with a kitchen serving burgers, soups, and Maine classics to hikers, paddlers, and lake visitors. The dock extends into Rangeley Lake; the tavern's local character — a working-class Maine lake-town bar, not a resort bar — is worth as much as the food.
10:15 AM📍 See location
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Afternoon
Rangeley Lake State Park
★ 4.6A 869-acre state park on the south shore of Rangeley Lake, with a boat launch, swimming beach, and 15-mile paddling circuit of the 6,000-acre lake. The lake sits at 1,785 feet elevation surrounded by 4,000-foot mountains; the combination of altitude and boreal setting produces a clarity of light unlike anywhere else in New England.
12:00 PM📍 See location
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Evening
The Rangeley Inn
★ 4.6The 1907 landmark hotel on the Rangeley main street, with a dining room serving Maine ingredients — Rangeley trout, foraged mushrooms, local berry desserts — in a room that has been feeding guides and sportsmen for over a century. The porch faces the lake; the bar serves cocktails made with Maine spirits.
5:00 PM📍 See location
🛏️
The Rangeley Inn
The 1907 landmark hotel on the Rangeley main street, with rooms facing the lake and a dining room serving Maine trout and foraged ingredients. The lakefront town has a quiet character that rewards a slow morning before the drive to Sugarloaf.
Day 3 — Sugarloaf & Kingfield, ME
Day 3 — Sugarloaf & Kingfield, ME
🚗 4 hr 30 min driving📍 3 stops
🌅
Morning
🚗
Drive
Rangeley, ME → Sugarloaf Mountain — Bigelow Range Trailhead
45 min8:00 AM → 8:45 AM
Bigelow Range — Horns Pond Trail
★ 4.9The Bigelow Range west of Sugarloaf is the most dramatic ridge in Maine outside of Acadia — a 12-mile traverse from Stratton to North Crocker with three significant summits above 4,000 feet. The Horns Pond Trail (6.6 miles RT from the Stratton Brook trailhead) reaches the col between the two Horns with a shelter at Horns Pond, a glacial tarn at 3,640 feet above treeline.
8:45 AM📍 See location
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Lunch
🚗
Drive
Bigelow Range Trailhead → Longfellow's Restaurant — Kingfield
30 min9:45 AM → 10:15 AM
Longfellow's Restaurant — Kingfield
★ 4.6A family restaurant in the small town of Kingfield, birthplace of the Stanley twins who invented the Stanley Steamer automobile in 1897. The kitchen serves Maine comfort food — corn chowder, house-made pies, fresh-caught trout — in a room that has been the social center of the Carrabassett Valley for decades.
10:15 AM📍 See location
☀️
Afternoon
Sugarloaf Mountain — Narrow Gauge Snowmobile Trail (Summer Hiking)
★ 4.8In summer, Sugarloaf's trail network opens for hiking — the Narrow Gauge trail follows a historic logging railroad grade through birch and fir to elevated views of the Carrabassett Valley. The 5.8-mile round trip to the top of Chair 4 offers the most accessible alpine experience in Maine without lift access, rewarding hikers with panoramic views of the Longfellow Mountains.
12:00 PM📍 See location
🌙
Evening
🚗
Drive
Kingfield, ME → Boston, MA
3 hr 15 min5:00 PM → 8:15 PM
Return via US-2 through Bethel and New Hampshire, or I-95 via Augusta.
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