Chimney Pond and Katahdin

Baxter State Park (near Millinocket)

Chimney Pond sits in a glacial basin at the foot of Katahdin, Maine’s highest mountain, with about 2,000 feet of granite walls rising above it, according to Maine: An Encyclopedia. The campground there, established in 1938, has nine lean-tos, a 10-person bunkhouse, and a ranger station, and it’s the base camp for the east side of the mountain.

It’s only 3.3 miles from Roaring Brook Campground, but camping here means waking up below the Knife Edge, the Saddle, and the Cathedral Trail, with the whole day free to climb.

The hike

The Chimney Pond Trail leaves Roaring Brook Campground and climbs about 3.3 miles to the pond, according to the park and Backpacker; onX lists it at 3.1 miles with about 1,442 feet of gain. onX calls it “a well-used, rocky trail” and warns it can be saturated after rain or in spring. The park lists trail realignment work on the Chimney Pond Trail for 2026, including new check steps and drainage repairs, and in June 2026 it posted that a bridge on the trail was closed, with a short re-route across the stream bed marked in blue flagging.

The pond itself is shallow. From Baxter Peak it looks like a small blue spot, but from its shore, Maine: An Encyclopedia notes, the cliffs are the whole view. The campground has its own ranger station, lean-tos, and one bunkhouse, “but no showers.”

From Chimney Pond, trails fan out to every part of the mountain: the Hamlin Ridge and North Basin trails, the Dudley Trail up to Pamola Peak, and the Cathedral and Saddle trails toward Baxter Peak. Backpacker’s 2013 route uses Chimney Pond as its base for a classic loop. It climbs the Dudley Trail, which it describes as 1.4 miles of boulder scrambling with 2,000 feet of gain to 4,919-foot Pamola Peak, then crosses the Knife Edge to Baxter Peak, the 5,268-foot summit, and comes back down the 2.2-mile Saddle Trail. Backpacker describes the Knife Edge as “a 1.1-mile ridge only three feet wide in places, with 1,500-foot drops,” and advises hikers to “check for signs of storms before braving” it.

Between Pamola and the Knife Edge is the Chimney, which a Bangor Daily News writer described in May 2026 as “a 30-foot rock chute that must be navigated down into a crevice and back up again.” He called the Knife Edge “a one-mile, harrowing trek over rocks and boulders just a few feet wide in places with steep drops on both sides,” and remembered looking down to see “Chimney Pond sitting far below in its basin.” On a later trip, his group planned to go up the Helon Taylor Trail to Pamola and come back down the Cathedral and Chimney Pond trails.

A 2020 Backcountry Post trip report shows how fast conditions change here. The writer spent an October night at Chimney Pond with single-digit wind chills, spitting snow, and 40 to 50 mph winds, and slept little, though he stayed warm in a bag rated to 32°F.

For a longer, flatter trip from the same trailhead, see Russell Pond.

Tips

Reserve early. Backpacker advises reserving four months ahead, the earliest the park allows. The park’s camping page says Chimney Pond can’t be booked online; call 207-723-5140, write, or go to headquarters in Millinocket.
Mind the cutoff. The park lists 5:00 p.m. as the latest departure from Roaring Brook for Chimney Pond from May through August, and earlier in fall.
Bring a stove. No open fires are allowed at Chimney Pond.
Watch the weather before going above treeline, and skip the Knife Edge in storms or wind.
No pets are allowed in the park.

Camping

All camping in Baxter is at designated, reserved sites, with up to 12 people per campground. Chimney Pond Campground has nine lean-tos and a 10-person bunkhouse. The park says there are “no open fires due to accumulated environmental degradation,” so cook on a stove. Campers must reach Togue Pond Gate before 8:30 p.m. on the first night of their reservation. Sites are generally open May 15 to October 15.

Inside Intel: In a Views from the Top thread on favorite Baxter walk-in sites, one poster picked lean-to #9 at Chimney Pond because it’s “the most remote from the campground and has no hiker traffic,” though it gets “plenty of moose traffic.”

Trail facts

Distance: 3.3 miles one way to Chimney Pond (park); 6.6 miles round trip, plus any summit loop
Route type: Out and back to camp; loops to Katahdin’s peaks from the campground
Difficulty: Moderate to camp; summit routes are steep, rocky, and exposed
Campsites: Chimney Pond Campground (9 lean-tos, bunkhouse)
Water: Pond and streams; treat all water
Permits: Reservation required; latest departure 5:00 p.m. in summer
Fires: Not allowed at Chimney Pond; bring a stove
Dogs: Not allowed in Baxter State Park
Trailhead: Roaring Brook Campground (via Togue Pond Gate)
Last verified: October 17, 2026

The Lowdown

No campfires below the Knife Edge:

Chimney Pond bans open fires, so every meal in the basin cooks on a backpacking stove. See the stoves reviewers recommend.

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Where this comes from

This page draws on the sources below, along with other guides and trip reports. Links go to the original pages.

Before you go: This page is based on published trail guides, trip reports, and reviews, along with official park and agency information where we could find it. It’s meant to help backpackers discover new trails, not to replace current, official information. Conditions, closures, permits, campsites, and water sources change, and some details here may be out of date or wrong. Confirm everything with the managing agency and check current conditions before you head out, and don’t rely on this page alone for safety or navigation. Backcountry travel involves risk.