To celebrate I survived 2 months of camp nursing in Maine, I decided to treat myself to a tour of some of the majestic lighthouses of Maine. I planned a 1.5 day trip starting out with Owl’s Head to Squirrel’s Point and Doubling Point and finishing with Portland Head and Nubble Lighthouse.
Lighthouses of Maine:
Owl’s Head
The first lighthouse of Maine I headed to was Owl’s Head Lighthouse outside of Rockland, Maine. The lighthouse and surround area is actually a state park of Maine and owned by the US Coast Guard. Originally built in the 1820s, it now serves as the educational center for Maine’s lighthouses. It has great lore of haunted happenings and unusual stories.
Owl’s head is known particularly for an extraordinary story early in its history. In 1850 a schooner with 3 passengers broke free from their mooring at neighboring Jameson’s point in a fiery storm and ended up running aground into the shoreline of Owl’s Lighthouse. One passenger was able to get ashore and ask for help for the other two passengers, a betrothed couple Lydia Dyer and Richard B. Ingraham. Legend has it they were found together in a solid block of ice frozen from the bitter storm! The lighthouse keeper and the rescue crew are said to have brought them back to life by steadily warming them. They later married and had four children!
Unfortunately you can’t actually go in the lighthouse because it is restricted by the Coast Guard. However, it is beautiful to admire from the outside; and there is a path at the bottom that also leads to Owl’s Head beach. Here’s a snap of the beautiful Maine coast on the path up to Owl’s Head Lighthouse with my dog Benny!
The park is open daily for visits and is free! There is a nice large parking lot with a short walk up to the lighthouse. Dogs are ok on some parts as long as they are leashed.
Sights from a walk around Owl’s Head State Park
Information post, Owl’s Head
In front of some beautiful flowers of Owl’s Head
Owl’s Head lighthouse!
The best photo I could snap of us two! #bennythedog
Closeup of Owl’s Head Lighthouse
View looking down from Owl’s Head lighthouse
As you head back down the path, it splits off near the bottom where you can go to Owl’s Head Beach. There is a nice wooded path to a nice secluded off the beaten path beach.
Headed down the path to the beach
Owl’s head Beach
Just as I headed around the corner to the beach, the most beautiful white sailboat peaked around the jagged coastline to create a picturesque scene!
Sailboat @ Owl’s Head
Awesome visit to Owl’s Head! Probably ranks #2 in my tour of lighthouses of Maine due to the fact that it is fairly secluded, its interesting history, and its’ striking beauty. Next stop…Pemaquid!
Pemaquid Lighthouse
Pemaquid Lighthouse is located in Bristol, Maine and also was built in the early 1800s. There is a $3 entrance fee at the time of this writing that includes access to the grounds, museum, art gallery, and picnic areas. It seemed a bit full so I decided to go check it out from the cute little restaurant/shop next door The Seagull (I needed a good Maine long sleeve t-shirt!) The Seagull is a one stop shop complete with an old fashioned ice cream parlor, a comprehensive gift shop, and full restaurant offering a nice view of Pemaquid Point.
However, Pemaquid Lighthouse definitely wants to garner your money and patronage as in between the Seagull and the neighboring lighthouse stands a towering chain length fence. Can’t really get an ideal view of the lighthouse without either perhaps standing on a restaurant chair to look over the fence or following the path down to the precipitous beach. I chose the latter and went down to the beach.
Best photo I could get without scaling the fence! Not too shabby to save $3
Rocky coast of Pemaquid Point
The mighty Atlantic!
Worth a visit for sure! Probably a better bet if you just suck it up and pay the $3, but all of the other lighthouses of Maine I got to visit for free so on principal I decided to opt out. Beautiful lighthouse nonetheless, and sure wish I had had time to have an adult beverage and a delicious snack at the Seagull! Got my coveted long sleeve Maine tee though!
Next stop… Squirrel Point and Doubling Point.
Squirrel Point and Doubling Point
Squirrel Point
Squirrel Point and Doubling Point are located within about 11 miles’ drive of each other, so a good two for one! Squirrel Point piqued my interest because of it’s unusual red lights and the fact that you had to take a little hike in the woods to get there.
A nice windy beautiful Maine coastline drive later, I arrived at Arrowsic Island outside of Bath, Maine. I’m shocked the GPS actually got me there! I had the help of a local lighthouse pamphlet though. You drive in on Maine 127 and end taking a road called Bald Head Road. At the end of Bald Head Road is a clearing in the woods. No parking lot, you just kinda park on the outer rim of the circular clearing. I was the only one there! The trail is very easy to miss. A small little footpath, quite overgrown when I was there. No real markings for the trailhead or anything, so just hoped I was heading the right way.
Eventually there were some signs that do point to Squirrel Point and a welcome relief you aren’t just heading into the Blair Witch Project or worse. But what awaits is quite a treat! This is # 3 on my lighthouses of Maine, but really a VERY close 2nd. P.s. bug spray is a good idea, a very wooded trail and lush vegetation is a haven for mosquitoes. Benny and I ended up running the rest of the trail before long!
Part of the nearly mile trail leading to Squirrel Point. This was actually way more wide than the initial trail! Benny is pumped to be out of the lighthouse tour by car I dragged him on. 🤪
A sign!! 🙏🏻
Benny and I make it to the lighthouse and it is super cool! The lighthouse is situated on the Kennebec River, the town of Bath’s gateway to the Atlantic Ocean. The Kennebec River served as an integral route for trade in the 1800s and thus a highly trafficked waterway, and a need arose for lighthouses along the way. Super interesting as most of the lighthouses of Maine I had heard or seen have been directly on the Maine coast! There are actually 4 lighthouses along the Kennebec River, Doubling Point being one of the 4 as well.
Land ho! Named after the governor’s ship the Squirrel that ran aground in the early 1700s on a peace mission with the Native Americans
Me and Squirrel’s Point Headlight!
Squirrel’s Point tell tale Octagonal Shape and Red tinted glass
View of the Kennebec River from Squirrel’s Point
Quick video of Squirrel Point Headlight!
After Squirrel Point, headed to Doubling Point just down the river.
Doubling Point
Doubling Point is a another beautiful lighthouse of Maine on the Kennebec River. It ranks #4 in my opinion, but not to be missed! It was built in the late 1800s along with Squirrel’s Point lighthouse to help mariners navigate the frequently traveled river. Another obscure location, it is not super obvious how to get there, no large signs I saw. You take Doubling Point Road and follow it to the end where a small parking area is (free), maybe about one or two spots on a dirt road. The lighthouse and area is public, but the houses adjacent are private houses. So you literally walk through someone’s backyard to get to this lighthouse. Not a bad view from your backyard!
Doubling Point, late summer 2019
Benny’s happy again to be out of the car!
Storm rolling in at Doubling Point
Super Selfie (as I call them) in front of Doubling Point
Doubling Point is quite photogenic….
Scenes on the way out, a beautiful pond with flowers
Portland Head Lighthouse: One the most renowned lighthouses of Maine
Portland Head is located in Cape Elizabeth just outside of Portland, Maine (on of my favorite spots in Maine, check it out!) Probably one of the most iconic, it overlooks a plunging rock coastline on Portland Harbor. It lies inside the 90 acre Fort Williams Park where you can picnic, hike, and shop for gifts. It has beautifully landscaped walkways and epic panoramic views. Be sure to spend at least a whole day here, it definitely ranks #1 in my lighthouses of Maine tour. Bonus, dogs are welcome and no admission fee although they do take donations. Additionally, they just instituted paying for “premium” parking (which is basically the whole park ), but I got there pretty early and went around for a quick trip and didn’t have any issue.
Hello gorgeous! Can you imagine watching a sunset or sunrise here? Or a storm rolling in? 🙌
Sun streaming down on Portland Head
Portland Headlight closeup
Landscaped walkways
Me and the Portland Head Lighthouse
Definitely could have spent more time combing around this gem of a park, but alas I did not have the time. I highly recommend spending some time here and getting a tour of the city and lighthouse though!I had a date to get to some family in New Hampshire for some much needed R&R. They had offered to take me to Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine the following day. I was anxious to get some place and stay for a bit, so headed to NH but made my way to Nubble with my dear family the following day!
Nubble Lighthouse
Nubble Lighthouse is located in York, Maine about 1.5 hours away from where I was staying in NH. It was built in the late 1800s as the most southern lighthouse of Maine and also one of the most famous. It too has mariner’s lore of hauntings and fabled stories. A ship Isidore that wrecked upon the very shores of future site Nubble Lighthouse in 1842 is said to still haunt the high seas.
Interesting side note: when the NASA’s space explorer Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 to Jupiter it contained a time capsule of photos of some of the most treasured images of Earth; and Nubble Lighthouse made the cut! So somewhere out in the middle of time and space light-years away there is a capsule with a photo of Nubble Lighthouse still roaming the galaxy! Pretty cool.
There is a little roundabout you drive to at the end of the road where you can park and view the lighthouse. This is a BUSY place, lots of tourists and you have to be patient for a parking spot although it’s free which is a bonus. They also have a little gift shop/info area there with restrooms which is nice! There are also a couple of little restaurants around where you can sit on a beautiful day and take in the sights of Nubble Lighthouse while munching on Maine’s notorious lobster rolls. If that isn’t quintessential Maine I don’t know what is!
Here are some photos!
There she is! Nubble Lighthouse
My NH adopted mom and dad, Mrs. Donna, me, Mr. Ron in front of Nubble Lighthouse
Views aside Nubble Lighthouse. There were some scuba divers there, maybe they saw some wreckage from old boats!
One more for good measure
Definitely worth a visit! A great ending for my abbreviated tour of lighthouses of Maine. If you are ever in Maine, you certainly must go visit some of the beautiful lighthouses they have. There is something special and magical about lighthouses! They go back to a simpler time in history rich in mariner culture.
There are times when the ocean is not the ocean — not blue, not even water, but some violent explosion of energy and danger: ferocity on a scale only the gods can summon. It hurls itself at the island, sending spray right over the top of the lighthouse, biting pieces of the cliff. And the sound is the roaring of a beast whose anger knowns no limits. Those are the nights the light is needed the most. – M.L. Steadman , The Light between the Oceans 2012
