A Week Exploring Coastal Maine

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

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Rocky shorelines topped with stately evergreens. The zebra striped lighthouses situated on outcrops. Water that just looks cold, teaming with fish and lobster, many of which will have a second life in the seafood industry. New England style homes that look prepared to weather winter’s winds and equally designed to open all their windows to soak up the northern summer sun. Whatever else it is, Maine is a sensory experience.

In late fall 2014 just as the short days hinted at winter, particularly in the crisp hours of sunrise and sunset, I visited Maine with a couple of family members for a relaxed, low-key, week-long getaway. This is exactly the right pace for Maine. With warm, sunny daytime hours, Maine was ours for the exploring. At this point in the season, all of summer’s festivities and its vacationers were long gone. Swimsuits had been retired to dresser drawers with rogue pieces of sand haunting them. How long do beach vacations stay with us? Like literally stay with us in the form of little piles and practically invisible specs at the bottom of a bag? In coastal Maine, you should have time to think about the grains of sand of life. If you don’t, you really should think about going back to page 45 and choosing another adventure. So to speak.

We landed at Portland airport midday. I suspect that people from this Portland get exasperated with everyone assuming that there is only one Portland, and it is in Oregon. The metropolitan area of Portland, Maine, is home to about half a million people, and it is the largest city in Maine. Compared to its New England brethren, enormous cities like Boston and New York, the Portland airport had the air of a small regional airport.

We had rented a house in Ellsworth for our visit. Ellsworth is just north of Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island, making it a great location for us. It is also about 3/5 of the way along Maine’s coast from Portland to the border with Canada. (South from Portland for about half an hour will take you to the border with New Hampshire, along which sits picturesque Portsmouth.) During this trip, we ended up exploring about 4/5 of Maine’s coast and didn’t have time for the long coastal route all the way to Canada, though that would be fun for more of a road trip style outing in the future.

Ellsworth, maine

The drive from the Portland airport to Ellsworth took over three hours, a drive that was both pretty, although perhaps repetitive as we passed through one after another of small town centers with old houses (which I love). There is also a faster route that tracks inland that would have shaved about 45 minutes off of our trip but, again, see above for the right pace for Maine.

Ellsworth is a small town (population under 8,000) with a cute downtown area with restaurants and shops. Union River, which ultimately runs out to the ocean, passes along downtown. During our visit, we ate dinner out in Ellsworth on two different occasions. On our first night, we had pub fare at Finn’s Irish Pub, where the food was heavy and delicious, and diners were treated to live Irish music. A few days later, we dined along the river at Union River Lobster Pot, a restaurant specializing in seafood, and also had delicious meals. I would return to either spot in the future.

a complicated storybook style house

The house we rented can only be described as storybook charming. In trying to think of the right way to describe it, I googled and learned that apparently “storybook style” is an actual house style. Google that, and you’ll get a sense of what I’m describing. Sadly, the home is no longer available to rent so I can’t provide a link. The interior was overall amazing - a soaring great room with a wooden ceiling and large stone fireplace - and luxury touches in the kitchen. Parts of the house were also strangely impractical. The only way to get to the basement TV room was down a spiral staircase. I truly despise actually using spiral staircases! It was football season and trying to carry a bowl of popcorn, beers, etc. required multiple trips to do so safely. The house itself had only two bedrooms. One was the master bedroom with beautiful lake views and an enormous bathroom. The second was a loft bedroom above the kitchen and only accessible up a built-in ladder. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to scale up or down a ladder to get to a bedroom, and how do you even get a suitcase aloft? There was a third bedroom over the garage in a small apartment, which had its own entrance.

The house experience was definitely one of a kind. Actually, there is a kind of genius to this house. This would be perfect for someone to build if they had no children and wanted to discourage guests . . . or at least keep them at a garage apartment’s length distance.

Our week-long trip included both local excursions and lengthier drives. Here are some of the places we enjoyed exploring!

mount desert island - bar harbor

The town of Bar Harbor is well known for its quintessential coastal Maine appeal. The town was a mere 35 minute drive from our stay in Ellsworth. While Mount Desert Island is in fact an island, it is connected by causeway to the mainland, making it easily accessible. Here are some options for your time on the island:

Explore, shop, and dine in Bar Harbor - Wander through shops, sit and enjoy the water views from Agamont Park, and grab a drink and bite to eat. As a popular spot, restaurants can have long waits. We even had a short wait for an off-season brunch at Testa’s Bar and Grill.
Feel the sand beneath your toes - From Agamont Park in Bar Harbor, take the short path down to the beach and follow it along the coast for its entire length (0.7 miles).
Visit Bar Island (by foot) - While it was too cold for us - remember ocean breeze can feel extra sharp! - at the end of Bridge Street is a connection to a pedestrian bridge that will carry walkers across to Bar Island. Bar Island is a natural area that is not developed.

mount desert island - acadia national park

The vast majority of Acadia National Park is situated on Mount Desert Island. Acadia is one of the top ten most popular national parks. Ensconced within is Cadillac Mountain, miles of hiking and biking paths, and beautiful ocean vistas. Throughout the national park are 45 miles of carriage roads, not open to cars but otherwise accessible. These carriage roads were built between 1913-1940 by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. as a way to enjoy the space by horse or carriage.

There are endless sights to explore while at Acadia, and we were able to check out a number while we visited. Some of these highlights are as follows:

Hike Acadia National Park - Bar Harbor is actually the one populated spot nestled among the park. The park includes three main types of routes - 27 miles of car-friendly roads, over 150 miles of hiking trails of various difficulty, and 45 miles of old carriage roads that are great for biking. Remember that Maine is rocky, and the hiking paths are as well!
Hike the Ocean Path Trail to visit Thunder Hole and Sand Beach - The Ocean Path Trail is 2.2 miles each way (4.4 miles round trip). While we didn't go the full distance, at the further end of the path is also Monument Cove and Otter Point. The Ocean Path Trail offers a combination of wooded areas and views of the ocean. Thunder Hole is an interesting spot. Within the rocky shoreline is a crevice and as the tide comes in, the water rushes down into the cavern and creates a loud sound similar to a thunder clap (leading to its name) and causes the ocean water to kick high into the air, purportedly up to 40 feet high. The path that leads out to the spot next to this is surrounded by a metal railing to help keep visitors safe but not necessarily dry! While we didn't venture out onto the rock ourselves, plenty of other visitors did and got plenty wet! Sand Beach is well-named and is a stretch of sandy beach within a cove. Given that much of Maine's coastline is rocky, soft sand is an anamoly. Sand Beach provides beautiful views of rocky cliffsides and a chance to relax upon the soft sand.

Scale Cadillac Mountain . . . on foot or by car. While Cadillac Mountain's height doesn't compare with many notable peaks in the US, it is noteworthy for being the highest mountain along the Eastern coast, coming in at 1,530 feet high. The route to the top is a 3.5 mile winding road. The views at the top are breathtaking.
Drive Park Loop Road - This 27 mile route is a great way to explore the eastern side of Acadia National Park from inside your vehicle. Many of the scenic spots can be accessed from this road in addition to accessing them from the Ocean Path Trail.

Day Trip from Ellsworth, Maine - Petit manan wildlife refuge

We took several day trips to check out other parts of the state and while we had hoped to make it all the way to the far northern Maine coastline, where it abuts Canada, the curvy coastal roads take much longer to drive. The distance from Ellsworth to Lubec, on the Canadian border, is about an hour 45 minutes each way, making it 3.5 hours roundtrip without any stops.

As you may know from other posts we have made, we have a fondness for wildlife refuges. They are often the unsung heroes of the natural world - while many people flock to national parks, wildlife refuges are quite sparsely visited and offer unique wildlife and scenery.

So, it is no surprise that we discovered a local such option in Petit Manan Wildlife Refuge. This refuge is situated on one of the many thin finger-like peninsulas along the coast. It has two trails here, and we opted for the longer but easier (less rocky) Birch Point Trail, which is 2 miles in length (4 miles round trip). Built along an old logging road, the path initially goes through a forested area and open meadow and then gets closer to the ocean with beautiful views beginning to pop up through the trees. The drive from Ellsworth to Petit Manan was about 45 minutes each way.

Day Trip from Ellsworth, Maine - camden, rockport, and Freeport

My dad has family that summered in Camden, Maine, and he has fond memories of visits there, so we decided to take a road trip from Ellsworth to Camden to Rockport with a few side road travels in search of memories from yesteryear. A few non-family related highlights that others would enjoy:

Camden is a lovely, quintessential Maine town, situated right along the coast of Penobscot Bay. There are plenty of shops for actual or window-shopping, seafood restaurants, and boats bobbing on the gentle waves. We wandered the streets - quite chilly with the sea breeze - before having lunch overlooking the water.
After lunch, we explored Camden Hills State Park, located just outside of downtown and home to Mount Battie, an 800 foot hill that towers above Camden. Visitors can reach the top of Mount Battie via car or can take a 1.2 mile trail. The park also has about 20 additional hiking trails. Atop Mount Battie is the small, stone Mount Battie Tower that at first view, appears out of time and place. The tower was erected in 1921 on the spot where a grand home and hotel - Summit House - once sat until it was felled by a fire in 1918.

View of Camden’s harbor from inside Mount Battie Tower

A short distance from Camden is Rockport, famously the home of Andre the Seal. For those who don't know his story, here is a 2021 reprint of a 1986 article that outlines Andre's story. The statue of Andre is easy to find in Rockport Marine Park, right near the town's center. Rockport is like a smaller, more quaint version of Camden and has some interesting houses and boats that can be seen from the Marine Park area.
Freeport is perhaps best known as the home to L.L.Bean, which was founded in 1912. Today, it is a bustling area filled with outlet stores and is (to this non-shopper) far less appealing than the other coastal towns. That said, visiting the L.L.Bean flagship store with its large boot out front was a fun stop!