Greatest New England Lakes

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2013 issue of Yankee and may have been updated for this special collection.

A day by a lake brings the ultimate in summer pleasure … water at your door, a boat at your dock . . . where you can do everything, or nothing at all. Here are one noted travel writer’s personal favorites, each great in its own special way.

Moosehead Lake 

A visit to beautiful Moosehead Lake in Maine, the largest mountain lake in the eastern United States.

Belgrade Lakes

A cluster of seven bodies of water north of Augusta, the Belgrade Lakes in Maine draw visitors summer after summer to swim and fish in their cool, clear waters.

Damariscotta Lake

Damariscotta Lake on Maine’s busy Midcoast is the glacier’s gift to those of us who love to look at the ocean but shiver at the thought of jumping in.

Lake Willoughby

Lake Willoughby is a quiet, even haunting, place cloaked in the 7,000-acre Willoughby State Forest in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

Newfound Lake

Considerably smaller than Winnipesaukee to the east, but about the same size as Sunapee to the southwest, New Hampshire’s Newfound Lake is a great daytrip lake.

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