We had been waiting for the perfect weekend day this winter to visit Range Pond State Park. It seemed that anytime we had a free day to visit a park, it was either freezing rain or just flat-out freezing and we have no interest in exposing a 1-year-old to negative temps for long periods of time. Despite the cold weather, it’s been a wonderful winter so far but there haven’t been any state park visits for our family since Eloise’s birthday.

On Friday night, when we saw an overnight forecast of 1-3 inches of snow and morning temps in the 30s, it was time to mobilize! Range Pond State Park is only 35 minutes from our house in Portland. State park planning in the winter is tricky because there are a lot of parks we want to save for warmer weather so that we can enjoy them to their fullest. That being said, these parks are open year round for a reason.

Just like Maine has many different faces of terrain throughout the state, the parks have different faces for each season. From our research online, it appeared that Range Pond State Park was a nice snowshoeing spot and boy were they right.

We had an earlier start than expected, thanks to Eloise and her unpredictable sleeping habits, so it was a no-rush, stress-free, out-the-door type of morning. While she napped on the way, we stopped for a couple coffees and a munchkin for our munchkin. She seemed pleased to wake to a little glazed treat.

Range Pond State Park is about 10 minutes shy of the Oxford Casino, in the town of Poland. It’s located right near the Poland Springs Bottling Plant. Most of the parks are unmanned in the off season and they just open the gates, but even when the gates are closed, you can park outside and walk in. All the facilities were boarded up for the season, but it appears they have everything you would need for a day of swimming at the pond during the warmer months.

On this winter day, the staff had plowed some of the parking lots so there were plenty of spots to park. The conditions couldn’t have been more perfect for a morning of snowshoeing. There was 2-3 inches of untouched powder on the trails and we were the first to walk on it. No, Eloise isn’t snowshoeing yet, so we took turns pulling her in her 20-year-old refurbished L.L. Bean sled that mom scored on the Portland yard sale, and dad gave it the Pimp My Ride treatment. Like every kid in a sled, Eloise LOVED it.

There are a couple trails that loop around sections of the park. We chose to march along the pond on some trails for a while but also explored the main areas of the park. They split the trail in half for walkers/snowshoers and the other side for cross-country skiers. The trails are well maintained and there’s a perfect amount of signage. There was a slight wind which kept blowing fresh snow off the trees as we walked along in the woods; which made for quite a beautiful scene. Eloise was happy to help herself to the snow on her lap like a buffet.

There was a local ice fishing derby taking place on the pond which was not hosted by the park. The park holds their own in early March and it’s a kid’s event! This derby brought in some snowmobilers and fisherman but even with an event like this, there weren’t too many people around. We probably would have only seen four people and a dog at the park all morning if the derby wasn’t going on. Honestly, it’s great seeing people out enjoying themselves, so it didn’t bother us at all.

Even though we were loving this winter wonderland, we could tell Range Pond would be a sweet place to swim in the summer, but then also a great place to walk the trails in the fall. Poor spring in Maine, it always comes in last. After snowshoeing for a while, we made our way back over to where the beach would be, if it wasn’t buried under a ton of snow. It was great to see the lifeguard chairs still out but with signs on them that read “no lifeguard on duty.” It was certainly comical as snowmobiles crossed over the top of frozen water.

An unexpected joy was the snowed in playground. Eloise was comfy lying down in the
sled on the way back to the car and she was almost fast asleep but we (the adults) had to get out and play a little. It was a blast and Eloise wouldn’t stop giggling every time she went down the slide and landed in a pile of snow. A couple of kids from the derby were there playing as well and we talked them into taking our family picture. They were laughing at Eloise’s laugh. It was a simple and beautiful morning.

Bradbury is often the go-to State Park hiking spot for many Southern Mainers but Range Pond needs to get on people’s radar, if it isn’t already. From the sounds of it, we might just be late to the party because we’ve already heard from a few people about how great it is there during the other seasons as well.

Range Pond deserves 8 Rubies…it’s versatile, convenient and gorgeous! This will be a Ruby family spot for many years to come.