Moosehead Lake

Maine's largest lake — 40 miles of water and forest with almost no shoreline development

Moosehead is Maine's biggest lake — about 40 miles long, 75,000 acres, ringed by spruce and fir forest with almost no buildings in sight. Even by Maine standards the scale takes some adjusting to: there are bays here larger than most lakes elsewhere in New England. The water is cold, clear, full of landlocked salmon and lake trout, and dotted with islands.

Greenville Junction sits at the south-west corner, the standard launching point. From here you can hire a seaplane, take a steamboat cruise, paddle a sea kayak, or just sit at the end of the public dock and watch.

things to do sight
A story
Henry David Thoreau came up here three times — in 1846, 1853, and 1857 — and the trips formed the basis of *The Maine Woods*, his great account of the New England backcountry. The lake he described is still largely the lake you see today: roughly 90 per cent of the shoreline is undeveloped.