General Information:
Cathedral Pines is located in Eustis, Maine and is about a 2 ½ hour drive north of Portland. We have been wanting to check out Cathedral Pines, a town-owned campground, ever since we learned about their large campsites tucked into historic 300 acres of red pines that are along route 27 and the shorelines of Flagstaff Lake.
Cathedral Pines is a 115-site campground with water and electric hookups at 98 sites. They also have 3 group sites located across the street from the main campground area. All sites have a good amount of shade from the tall, red pines that tower over the sites.
Sites are a sandy/gravel combination (not my favorite). Some of the mature tree growth may present challenges getting your camper into the site. Also, water and electric hook ups can be in interesting places on the campsites (more on that later).
Quiet hours start at 10pm with an unknown end time. I know that seems silly but we really couldn’t find an end time anywhere; not online, posted anywhere, or even on the list of policies they gave us upon check in. But…it’s safe to say quiet hours end around 7am based on the consensus of the crowd that was there when we were.
Cathedral Pines also offers some great amenities for kids! A Rec Hall, playground, plus one for the younger kid crew, and canoe & kayak rentals, give families some great entertainment options right at the campground.
Speaking of the Rec Hall, it offers a TON of options for kiddos! Think: craft activities every morning, a wall of shelves filled with board games, books that can be borrowed, and a couple of arcade games (bring quarters!).
You will also have access to approximately 2 miles of walking trails across the road. Walking these trails in the early morning, under the towering red pines was a surreal moment and I highly recommend it!
The two-way campground roads are paved and narrow; making it easy for kiddos to bike and scoot but also present some unique challenges for when two trucks towing campers meet.
This area of Maine is filled with so much history; from the waters of Flagstaff Lake to Benedict Arnold’s failed march to Quebec, and the narrow gauge railroad’s pivotal role in logging, if you are looking for a campground to call home for a couple days while you explore all that this area has to offer, I would suggest checking out Cathedral Pines Campground!
CAUTION: There are pines that lean a bit into some of the roadways as evidenced by badges in their bark of trailers that have come too close to their limbs. Work together with your partner upon arrival and departure to watch for limb clearance. We even walked our preferred departure route to spot potential tight spots.
Cleanliness of Site/Site Details:
The sites are a sandy/gravel combination and were clean upon arrival. With a 12pm check-out and 1pm check-in, I was really impressed that campground staff were to clean the sites so quickly!
While the campground offers a small amount of full hookup sites, I believe most of those are seasonal sites. 98 sites have water & electric hookups, with the remaining 17 sites being dry sites.
Speaking of sites, they are HUGE!!! This is something everyone has been telling us about Cathedral Pines and I would have to agree. We had a very spacious site, #20. There was lots of space to set up camp, hang a clothesline, and still gave my daughter plenty of room to play.
Some sites were so big, they even had two travel trailers on them!
I will say, I think what limits bigger travel trailers & 5th wheels (like 35ft +) from getting into spots that are closer to the lakefront, even though they could fit easily into the sites, would be the narrow roads and tree clearances. Most of the bigger travel trailers we saw were in sites #90-97, where the road is wider and the trees don’t interfere too much with backing in your rig.
At Cathedral Pines, you have what I call the “traditional” distance between camp sites; you are definitely NOT on top of one another but also not too far away from each other either.
Oddly, I do think their campground map is pretty accurate when it comes to how the sites are spaced within the campground. For example, sites #61, #61A, #61B and #64 are all pretty close to one another in “real life”. And..our space (site #20) is a bit closer to site #22 from site #19, which you can also see on the map.
So if you are someone (like me) who stresses about being on top of their neighbors, the campground map is a good guide to picking sites.
Some of the water & electric hookups are on the camp side of the sites. We didn’t know about this until we arrived. Our site, #20, had hookups in the traditional side of the campsite but it would have definitely thrown us for a loop to either consider pulling our camper into the site or running the hookup lines under the camper.
Here are my recommendations for sites:
- Site #14: close to the beach, with good privacy and a unique log bench feature.
- Sites #19-25: close to the beach, lake views, easy backing, centrally located to the bathrooms, rec hall, etc.
- Site #28: close to the beach, ultimate privacy, long and straight back-in to site.
- Site #64: lakeside with beautiful views of the mountains, campside hook ups
Site Costs:
For 2026, we stayed at a site with hookups for $46.80/night. Expect to pay about $6.00 more to be on the lakefront. Dry sites, without hookups, run for $43.68/night and expect to pay about $3.00 more for dry sites on the lakefront.
And yes, the cents part of each nightly rate is accurate! I’ve never seen that before but I think it adds to the character of Cathedral Pines!
Ok, let’s talk about Cathedral Pines and how they do reservations because it is definitely UNIQUE!
For the 2026 camping season, Cathedral Pines changed up how they process reservations. Reservations begin on January 1st @ 12:00am via email (and email ONLY). You email Cathedral Pines with your dates of your stay and your preferred site choices once the reservation window opens. They recommend providing up to 2 preferred site choices. If they can fill your request, you will get an email confirmation and if not, they will call you.
*If you email Cathedral Pines before January 1st @ 12:00am, your reservation request goes to the bottom of the list.
Since this was our first time there, I just asked to be placed on any of the sites #18-24, which they were able to accommodate. Another thing to note about this system is it took them 5 days to return my email. I was a bit anxious about whether or not my email was lost and because they don’t answer their phone when their reservation window opens, I just had to wait and see if I would get a confirmation email or a phone call.
While I’m sure that Cathedral Pines had their reasons for implementing this new system, it’s definitely not my favorite.
Amenities:
- Hiking Trails
- Lake/Beach Access
- Dog Beach
- Playgrounds
- Rec Hall (bring quarters for the arcade games!)
- Separate Rec Hall for Adults
- Kayak and Canoe Rentals ($$)
- Ice and Wood ($$)
- Bathrooms and FREE hot showers
- Laundry ($3.00 for washer, $3.00 for dryer)
- Dishwashing Station
- Drinking Water
- Dump Station (4 of them!!)
Bathroom Low Down:
There are three bathhouse locations at Cathedral Pines Campground. One bathhouse is centrally located near the Rec Hall, playground, and laundry. The other two are located around the perimeter of the campground.
Each bathhouse has separate all-gender shower/toilet rooms which I love so much for families!
The perimeter bathhouses are newer and MUCH LARGER than the centrally-located ones and we preferred to use those ones during our stay. These perimeter shower/toilet rooms have benches, places to hang towels and toiletries, and electrical outlets. If using the centrally-located shower/toilet room, expect a smaller space with no benches and limited spots to hang towels and toiletries.
There are also some port-a-potties near the dump station and some bathrooms near the office.
Bathroom Rating: B-
The toilet/shower rooms at Cathedral Pines definitely see a lot of use (i.e. campground full of kids). I wish these bathrooms were cleaned a couple more times a day.
Also, here is one request to campers at ALL campgrounds: if you have hair that gets captured in the bottom of the shower, can you grab some paper towels and scoop that up once you are done in the shower? I promise the next person to use the shower will thank you! 🙂
Overview of our Experience:
We stayed three nights at Cathedral Pines Campground to conclude our road trip week to the Highland and western Maine regions. We previously stayed at Peaks-Kenny State Park Campground & Moose Creek RV Resort.
We stayed at site #20 which had water/electric hookups and gave us views of Flagstaff Lake. I really liked all the sites on our road (sites #19-25). Our large site provided us great options for setting up camp and gave our daughter lots of room to play.
The weather on arrival day was a bit wet but that didn’t deter us from checking out this campground. We had wanted to come to Cathedral Pines after several people raved about the site sizes and beautiful trees.
The next morning, the weather had cleared up and we spent the morning between the campsite and rec hall doing the morning art activity and playing with some iconic board games.
In the afternoon, we rented a canoe from the campground and paddled around Flagstaff Lake, admiring the amazing views of the mountains and taking in the history of how this lake was formed.
One thing we noticed at the campground during the afternoon, and I think this is a growing trend at campgrounds everywhere, is that there are SO MANY kiddos on electric scooters.
And..I’m not a fan!
Not a fan for a couple of reasons: 1. They are cruising so fast, 2. A lot of scooters are quiet so many people don’t hear them approaching from behind, and 3. crashes are so much worse and I worry about concussions.
We also noticed that many were used at night which is even worse than biking at night because of reasons #1 and #2 mentioned above.
Ok..back to the campground details…
In the evening, my husband and I were sitting around the campfire when we saw the moon really showing off! We took turns going to the beach to take in the beautiful moon shining onto the lake.
On our second full day, we headed out on an epic adventure day. Our first stop was at Rangeley Lakes State Park to check off State Park #24 for my daughter, to pick up her prize (a water bottle) for getting to the halfway point of the Passport Program, and to take a peek at the campground there. But alas, there were no attendants on duty at the park so she wasn’t able to get her prize. 🙁
From there, we headed off to catch a ride on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad in Philips, Maine.
If you are visiting this area, I highly recommend checking out this piece of history! Be sure to check their website for operating hours, and even double check before you go, as hours vary each week and the railroad is a completely volunteer-run organization. The train makes two stops, at the first one, you can get off and enjoy your lunch in the picnic grove and splash in the Sandy River and then catch a later train back.
*Note: poison Ivy is present on the edges of the picnic grove.
Lastly, we headed to Sugarloaf for a scenic chairlift ride. This was a great conclusion for our epic adventure day and a great way to wrap up our first road trip week with our camper!
Key Takeaways:
- Nightly rate is definitely worth it, even if the reservation system is unique!
- A great campground to call home for adventures in this area! Be sure to check out the history of Flagstaff Lake at the local historical society.
- Rec Hall is one of the best we have seen!
- Lots of kids on electric scooters, especially at night.
For more on our roadtrip to the Highlands and western regions of Maine as well as all of other adventures, check out my stories and reels on Instagram and Facebook.
Happy Adventuring!
~Natalie