Mount Kineo State Park

About this park

Mount Kineo State Park occupies a dramatic 800-acre peninsula jutting into Moosehead Lake, its defining feature a sheer 700-foot cliff of rhyolite rock rising almost straight up from the lake's surface. The cliff face was a prized source of toolmaking stone for Native Americans for thousands of years before European settlement, and the mountain remains one of the most visually striking landmarks anywhere on Moosehead Lake. Unlike almost every other park in the Maine system, Mount Kineo is accessible only by water, requiring a private boat or a seasonal shuttle from the nearby town of Rockwood to reach the peninsula, giving it a genuinely remote, almost expedition-like character. Once ashore, hiking trails climb steeply to the clifftop summit, rewarding the effort with sweeping views across the entirety of Moosehead Lake and the surrounding North Woods. A historic fire tower still stands atop the mountain, a remnant of the era when such towers dotted Maine's wilderness for forest-fire spotting, and the peninsula also holds the ruins of a once-grand 19th-century summer resort that drew wealthy visitors to the lake by steamboat. With no facilities beyond the trail itself, Mount Kineo remains one of the most rugged and unusual properties in the entire Maine state park system.