Having just spent a fair amount of our touring and visiting time within sight of the ocean, or at least the sound of the waves, for our next bit of exploration we looked around for a place to visit that would take us away from the coast a bit to see a different part of Maine, if possible staying away from larger towns because that’s our M.O. We didn’t want to get too far inland, though, since most of the rest of our visits are also along the coast. Well, what’s that green splotch there on the map? That’s Bradbury Mountain State Park. Set a course…
It was perfect! Bradbury Mountain is not huge – less than 500 feet above sea level. Its bald, granite summit can be reached via a short (0.2 mile) trail from the main parking lot. However, Bradbury Mountain and a pleasant campground are situated in the middle of a state park that also features a multi-use trail network with miles of paths for hiking, as well as double-track and single-track trails to interesting views and historic places.
We hiked to the 3 scenic view points in the park – South Ridge, North Bluff and Bradbury Summit. We took a little time to poke around a stone quarry abandoned in the 1800’s. The 2-mile Boundary Trail was lined for more than half its length with classic New England stone walls. Eventually, we came upon the Cow Pound – a stone corral where strayed or lost cows would be rounded up and held until their owners could pay the poundage fee to get their cows back.
After hiking, there was still time for music and reading, and time for just chilling. It was fun to see a different part of Maine with these wooded rolling hills a bit away from the coastline.
For anyone who’s interested, more Bradbury Mountain State Park pix…