Penobscot Outdoor Center 135 Basecamp Road, Millinocket, ME 04462

"I’ve stayed at this campground several times now and both are significant positive memories that have stayed with me. It’s a great place to pop a tent or rent the “bunkhouse” and it’s in the most amazing location. You can walk down to the office area for beer, fire pit, piano, horseshoes, or to check in for rafting. There are canoes/kayaks/paddle boards available, and the staff are always friendly and helpful. More than anything you can’t beat the location! Recently added rafting the Penobscot to my list and our guide Ty was amazing! (Full review under Penobscot Adventures for that). I can’t wait to come again whether to camp or raft, or both!!"

"Went rafting with POC/NEOC and cannot say enough good about them. Our guide Ty was fabulous. There were a couple of first timers in our boat and I was obviously quite nervous so he took the time to explain things so we felt better and were prepared. We did both the upper and lower river. We absolutely loved the rapids. I hate to admit it but the falls that I was so nervous about may have been the best part (haha). Seriously tho, you just can’t beat the views on this river either. Lunch was super yummy- especially the brownie. I would recommend POC/NEOC, and especially Ty a million times over. Keep up the great work guys and gals!"

"Review of river rafting, did not stay at NEOC facility. We took the "mild" half-day raft tour operated by NEOC that departs from the POC. All around a good experience. We've rafted several times before so I wish we'd booked the half-day wilder option. In any event, our guide Zach did a great job creating energy, and we had a really good group of strangers on our raft who all had a great dynamic. The lunch was tasty. We had the fish, which was haddock fillets, and I also got a left-over chicken breast. There was a rice dish with a little bit of vegetable, cole slaw, and water and lemonade. The day was thrown into a bit of kilter from the start when the upstream dam abruptly cut the water flow and made some sections impassible. NEOC scrambled to reassemble the day to cater to all the needs of the different tour groups. There was a good bit of idle time that seemed beyond NEOC's control. What is in NEOC's control is the need to group rafts together that are on different tours. Our "mild" tour was often left twaddling our collective thumbs waiting for the "spicy" tours to finish doing their exciting things. I appreciate that we all need to stick together to ensure we retrieve folks bucked off the rafts, but surely we could do something more interesing than hanging at the water's edge. Oh, and those mosquitos and black flies!!! Good grief!! NEOC didn't seem to take any measures to prevent or mitigate the swarms. Provide token DEET cans for use before boarding the mosquito cage (AKA: the bus)? Or have DEET available at the lunch area? Even if folks DEET'd up before their tour, it's all washed off by lunch. Or tell folks to bring bug spray and NEOC brings dry-bags on the boats to have available for lunch. Something."

"Had a fantastic time with my group! We had Dan as our instructor and he did an incredible job with directing our rafting trip! Highly recommended to anyone looking for awesome rafting."

"had a lovely two nights at the campgrounds here! beautiful views of katahdin over the pond, and some relaxing activities available in the lodge. Matt went above and beyond to accommodate our stay and help us feel welcomed! overall we were very pleased with our stay :)"