Branch Lake

Discover

Branch Lake is both a recreational waterbody and Ellsworth's drinking-water source. That combination should shape the visit before a boat reaches the launch. The city requires an inspection before a craft enters the lake, with arrangements for an attendant inspection or training as a self-inspector. Check the current process and launch access with the city rather than assuming that every public ramp works the same way. Once those arrangements are clear, the lake offers a different perspective from the paths through the surrounding public forest: an outing organized around the water itself and the care required to keep using it.

The lake's fisheries history makes public access more than a convenience. In a 2019 account, state fisheries biologist Greg Burr explained that the loss of public access around 2000 interrupted salmon stocking. As angling pressure fell, lake trout became overly abundant and depleted their rainbow-smelt food supply. Restoring access allowed biologists to restart salmon stocking, supplement smelt and work with anglers to reduce the surplus trout. Burr reported a much healthier balance by the time he wrote. This is a historical account of management, not a prediction about your next catch. Its interest lies in the relationship between recreation and ecology: simply removing fishing pressure had not produced the desired outcome. The food web required attention as well. His story singles out relationships between predator numbers, forage and opportunities for anglers.

The wooded shores have a related protection story. The Forest Society of Maine describes helping a family establish an easement on 700 acres of working forest in 2010, within a larger effort to protect Ellsworth's water supply. The agreement combined the city's water-protection needs with continued forest management. Seen from a boat, a wooded shoreline can look like an untouched backdrop; this example gives it a more deliberate meaning. Maintaining trees, retaining working land and protecting a public resource were goals negotiated together. A visitor can appreciate that relationship without treating every conserved bank as an open landing or assuming a private parcel is part of a park.

An accommodation guest's review supplies a more personal water-level perspective. Writing on Travelocity in August 2025, Patty R. appreciated kayaking on Branch Lake during a family stay at a lakeside cottage. Her account emphasizes quiet water-based enjoyment and time with relatives. It is a review of a private rental, with its own equipment and shore access, rather than a review of the municipal launch. That distinction matters: the pleasure she describes may help explain the lake's appeal, but a day visitor still needs to arrange their own access and follow city requirements. Her impression of cleanliness is personal testimony, not a laboratory assessment of water quality.

For photographs, try showing how the distant tree line gives shape to an otherwise broad water surface. A narrower frame can emphasize the meeting of land and water; a wider one can convey the space between them. Decide where you are going and how you will return before concentrating on the camera, and keep the image secondary to the practical task of boating.

Fun facts

1. Branch Lake supplies Ellsworth’s public drinking water.
2. Biologist Greg Burr described rebuilding the lake’s fishery after public access returned.

Read the official sources →

Visitor perspectives

1. Patty R., reviewing a private lakeside rental on Travelocity after an August 2025 stay, appreciated kayaking and the quiet lake setting. This concerns one family’s rental-based experience, not the municipal boat launch.

Capture

1. Use the wooded horizon as a shape within a broad lake frame rather than relying on an empty expanse of water.

Social

Branch Lake combines freshwater recreation with a public drinking-water role.

The city requires boat inspection before entry.

Greg Burr’s fisheries history connects restored access with ecological management.

Rainbow smelt formed an important link in that historical food-web story.

Working-forest conservation helps protect the water supply around the lake.

One family’s rental-based account praised kayaking and a quiet setting.

Choose a legitimate landing and respect private shoreline.

What makes a lake view memorable: the distant shore or the space in between? #Cre8Travel

Hashtags

1. #Cre8Travel
2. #Maine
3. #BranchLake
4. #MaineOutdoors

Sources & visitor information

• www.ellsworthmaine.gov
• www.maine.gov
• www.fsmaine.org
• www.travelocity.com