"Maine's Foreve ..." a Baxter State Park Travel Page by sarahandgareth

Baxter State Park is probably the jewel in the crown as regards wilderness experiences in Maine. Indeed, for many Mainers, climbing Mount Katahdin, in the park, is something of a rite of passage.

Being from Maine, Sarah had visited the Park a number of times, but our first joint visit was part of Gareth's introduction to all things Maine.

Baxter covers over 200,000 acres in northern Maine, and is named after former Governor Percival P. Baxter. After he had completed his term of office, he began to make land purchases in this area, and then, starting in 1931, donated them to the State. Essentially, the original Park was the gift of one man, with the State making subsequent purchases to bring the Park to its current size.

It's an astonishing wilderness area, preserved, as much as possible, in an entirely wild state. The area was logged in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but nature has been allowed to return the area to its original state, and the Park's mission is, first and foremost, preservation, and not recreation. This means that there are very strict limits to the numbers of people who can visit on any given day.