Bleaching the fresh water tank is an annual obligation when you own an RV, assuming you want to actually drink the water that you put in the tank. Because I routinely camp at Harvest Hosts and other “dry camping” locations like state parks, tank-bleaching is a necessity for me since at such locations, the only drinking water I have is what I brought with me in the fresh water tank. But this year, the bleaching process seemed to take longer and use more water, with the result that a great deal of bleachy water ended up in the gray tank. Knowing I’d need to empty it before I could actually go camping again, I looked for a campground with a dump station nearby (via the “Campendium” app) and discovered Stony Brook once again.

It was not until I pulled into the driveway of Stony Brook that I realized I had been here before, in 2020, on my very first RV camping trip. You can read that blog post too, if you wish — but it was immediately obvious that some changes had taken place here since my last visit. First, the camp roads were in much better shape, and the signage was vastly improved. I discovered, once I had occupied my campsite, that the campground was under new ownership; more on that in a bit.

Here are a couple photos of my campsite. There are two main RV camping sections to this campground — one is on an open hill and features a number of parallel sites, row by row; while the other features forested and more private sites, mostly of the back-in variety. I chose the latter:

There is a lovely wooded path, right behind my campsite, which follows the brook back to the swimming pool:

There are, in fact, numerous ways to camp at Stony Brook, from tent sites to open lean-tos to fully furnished cabins, to RV sites like mine. The new owner, Mike, has cleaned the entire campground up considerably since my last visit, and although he has invested most of his time in the cabins and apartments on the property, the other campground buildings (the rec hall, bathrooms, laundry, etc.), while older are nevertheless well-maintained and scrupulously clean.

Stony Brook Campground is in the town of Hanover, Maine, located about six miles from lovely Bethel, the gateway to the White Mountains region of Maine and the major ski/golf resort at Sunday River. Bethel is a four-season recreation community, but is also the home of Gould Academy (where some of America’s best skiers go to high school), and so it avoids the excesses of the tourist-heavy towns near the Maine coast. Dignified and stately, the town offers a variety of services to both tourists and residents alike.

Because I chose a raw, rainy, cloudy and cold two days to make this trip, I eschewed the fine golfing at the Bethel Inn this time, and simply explored the town. Although the prime summer tourist season is still a couple of weeks away, I did find open a charming store where I bought a couple of gifts for the grandchildren. There is also the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in downtown Bethel, which (while unfortunately closed on Tuesdays, so I couldn’t go inside) has a striking display of Maine stones outside.

I was especially taken with this large display of gneiss:

Pretty gneiss, right?!

Anyway, I can heartily recommend Stony Brook and Bethel to those interested in spending time exploring western Maine and the White Mountains, located as they are close by both Sunday River and Grafton Notch State Park. Incidentally, one of the advantages of this tank-dumping expedition is that I also got to test out the camper before the main camping season begins for me — and I discovered to my dismay that the back stargazer window now leaks, the light over the sink no longer works, and the refrigerator turns itself off at random. So it looks like another trip to the dealer is on the horizon!