These 12 Maine State Parks Broke the Camping Visitation Record in 2022

Recently, the Maine Bureau of Parks and Public Lands announced that more than 3.2 million people visited the state's 42 parks and historic sites. This is a huge number that perfectly follows the trend we are seeing in post-pandemic living.

The bottom-line is that people are back outside. And this is great to see.

Whether it's for health, fun, or to cure boredom, millions of Americans have reintroduced themselves to the outdoors.

While 2022's number wasn't a record, it was close. It fell less than 20,000 visits from breaking the record, which was set way back in...2021.

While total visits didn't shatter the glass, campground visits did. According to the Maine Bureau of Parks and Public Lands, there were 319,131 campground visits this past year. This monster number was an increase of 1.1% from 2021.

The Bureau of Parks and Lands counts 12 state parks with campgrounds on the list. While you will recognize many of these, there is one major omission. Baxter State Park does not get included. The popular park has its own camping reservations and statistics.

As for the 12 that are included, they truly span the entire state. The coast, Aroostook County, Downeast Maine, the Midcoast, the Western Foothills, and even Southern Maine are all represented.

The Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands was also kind enough to send over the 2022 Maine State Parks Campground Use report. This breaks down all the parks and the visitors they finished the year with.

The clear number one was Sebago Lake State Park. The Raymond-based Park was the only one that had over 100,000 campground visits, finishing with 121,943.

As for the lowest? That's Warren Island. The small state park has just 12 campsites, but still managed to have 1,705 visits in 2022.

You can see the entire list below. How many have you visited or camped at?