North Woods National Monument Opens Fully to the Public

KATAHDIN WOODS AND WATERS NATIONAL MONUMENT, Maine — Amid an ongoing federal review and contention over the signs advertising it, Maine’s national monument opened fully for its first full year on Thursday with a handful of visitors more interested in nature than politics.

About a half dozen people came to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on Thursday, Superintendent Tim Hudson said, adding that attendance will likely increase this Memorial Day weekend. The Loop Road was the last entrance to open. The monument’s north gate opened on May 13.

One visitor, Connecticut resident Ron Goulet, described the land as pristine wilderness.

“We stopped at every place we could walk,” said Goulet, who has a Maine camp and visited Katahdin Woods with a friend. “The loop is just majestic. The view there is really something to see. People who want to see what nature has to see without a lot of commercialism, this is it.”

Read more: http://mainepublic.org/post/north-woods-national-monument-opens-fully-public