24 Best Sights in Way Down East, Maine

Views from this 12,234-acre state preserve above Cutler Harbor are likely to take your breath away, including 4½ miles of undeveloped Bold Coast between Cutler and Lubec. Here a wall of steep cliffs—some 150 feet tall—juts below ledges partially forested with spruce and fir; look for whales, seals, and porpoises while taking in views of cliff-ringed Grand Manan Island and the Bay of Fundy.

One of the East Coast's premier hiking destinations, the preserve's nearly 10 miles of interconnected trails offer hikes of about 3–10 miles, including loops. From the parking lot, the Coastal Trail runs 1.4 miles through woods to an ocean promontory, then follows the glorious Bold Coast for 3.4 miles. Revealing the area’s unusual terrain inland from the coast, the 4½-mile Inland Trail passes by raised peat bogs, salt marshes, and swamps, and traverses meadows and forest. There are several primitive campsites.

Sea-polished stones fascinate with glistening tones—many reddish but also heather, bluish, and creamy white—at this mesmerizing rock beach; removing stones from the beach is illegal. Banked in unusual geologic fashion, you must walk up and over a rock dune to get to the beach. When you do, you know you have arrived at a special place. Stones graduate from gravel at the shore to palm-size further back. Reddish volcanic rhyolite stones were mistaken for jasper, hence the name. Stretching a half mile across the end the rectangular-ish Howard Cove, bedrock at both ends deems this a pocket beach, but it's not your typical small one. A saltmarsh and fresh and saltwater lagoons intrigue visitors, and there are sea caves in the bedrock (be careful if you tread that way—the rocks are slippery). Tucked between the hamlets of Bucks Harbor and Starboard, Jasper Beach has long been a place of respite for folks in these parts. Amenities: parking (free). Best for: walking; solitude.

Judge Thomas Ruggles, a wealthy lumber dealer, store owner, postmaster, and justice of the Court of Sessions, built this Federal-style home in 1818. The house’s remarkable flying staircase, Palladian window, and intricate woodwork were crafted over three years by Massachusetts wood-carver Alvah Peterson. On guided tours you’ll also learn about the outstanding collection of period furnishings, much of it original to the home. The museum includes displays in the excavated basement where the original kitchen was located.

There are some steep sections on the 2-mile trail network here, but this lovely preserve provides easy access to the Bold Coast, and there's a viewing platform that looks over the Grand Manan Channel. This 700-acre preserve is owned by Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a large conservation group in Maine. Check their website to learn about their other preserves near Lubec and way Down East.

It was in this gambrel-roofed tavern home that the men of Machias laid the plans that culminated in the capture of the Margaretta in 1775. After the Revolutionary War's first naval battle, wounded British sailors were brought here. Period furnishings and household items show what life was like in Colonial times. On the National Register of Historic Places, the dwelling is among 21 in the country deemed most important to the Revolution. Tours by appointment in the off-season.

At this hillside winery outside Cherryfield along Black Woods Scenic Byway (Route 182), wines are made with local berries as well as grapes from beyond Maine, and artisanal methods are part of the winemaking process. The tasting room is in a restored barn with purple doors. Names of vintages like Cherryfield Blues and King Tunk play on local place names. Check the website for the winery's many special events and happenings.

Cobscook Bay is a mishmash of small coves and sub bays, as though a giant tried to claw his way inland from Lubec and Eastport. Even for Maine, the coast here is nooks and crooks, and a number of exceptional parcels on these wildly shaped waters have become part of a nonprofit, foundation-funded public park system with 15 parks that total about 15 miles of shore frontage. Park amenities include woodsy screened-in picnic shelters, restrooms, water fountains, and spiffy kiosks with large maps and information about the park's ecology and history. Old Farm Point Shorefront Park ( 65 N. Lubec Rd.) off Route 189 serves as an outdoor visitor center for Cobscook Shores and has a few short trails. Black Duck Cove and Race Point are two of the larger parks. The parks draw bikers and paddlers as well as hikers.

An active fort during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War, this site sits at the head of Machias Bay, where a naval battle was waged in 1775. Climb atop the grass-covered earthworks to take in the expansive water views. A panel display details the successive forts built here and relates the dramatic story of patriots, armed mostly with farm implements, who captured a British tender 2 miles offshore. A stone marker honors the site as a “birthplace” of the U.S. Navy.

This wonderfully wild, ecologically unique 1,576-acre preserve takes up much of Great Wass Island, which is linked by causeway to Beals Island. Hiking here can be challenging, but the rewards may include spotting gray seals as you make your way among the rocks and boulders at Little Cape Point. Just beyond the only trailhead is the start of the 4½-mile loop to the point, made up of three trail sections. Plan six hours for the round-trip as hiking here is moderate to difficult. One half of the loop passes through woods with a deep rug of moss, a raised peat bog, and a sedge-shrub marsh. The other traverses a cove (likened to a fjord) before edging granite cliffs for about a mile, revealing “wow” views of neighboring islands. Nearing the point, the trail follows a cobble beach. Stunted jack pines and rare plants like beachhead iris grow in the preserve's cool, humid climate, created by converging ocean waters. No pets are allowed though, and if it’s been raining, it may be too wet for hiking.

One of the joys of hiking here is arriving in South Addison, a fishing hamlet on a remote neck west of Jonesport. The wide harbor views in this sleepy village make you feel like you've discovered the real Maine. More magic moments of discovery await at this Downeast Coastal Conservancy preserve; the trailhead's at the village's Union Church, where hikers are allowed to park. The 145-acre preserve has a 3½-mile trail network that winds through the woods before hitting the coast and Carrying Place Cove and Wahoa Bay.

Hike in the state preserve in Cutler (Cutler Coast Public Land) for views of this lighthouse facing the ocean on a tiny, wooded island at the harbor’s mouth. You can also kayak to its rocky, cliff-clad shores. Friends of Little River Lighthouse hosts open houses each summer, ferrying visitors over from the boat ramp in town, and offers overnight stays in the charming keeper’s house. Check the website for details about overnight stays and the open houses.

Small buildings clustered on piers along the downtown waterfront are what remains of the nation’s last herring smokehouse, which operated here from the 1890s until 1991. Restoration is ongoing, but you can take a guided tour of the skinning and packing sheds, which have exhibits about the smoking operation and the sardine canning industry that once thrived along the Down East coast; your guide might be someone who worked here years ago and is helping preserve this legacy. There are photos and a video about the industry. The museum, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is part of Lubec Landmarks, whose Mulholland Market Gallery is next door with changing art exhibits.

The facade of this museum may lack period charm, but the interior more than makes up for it. Permanent exhibits document maritime industries past and present: shipbuilding, sardine canning, weir fishing, and lobstering. Each year there is a new exhibit, as well as a gallery that showcases local artists. On the second Tuesday of the month at 7 pm in-season, talks are held; check the website for details.

This 1.2-mile beach on the southern side of Lubec Neck has dramatic tides that produce excellent clamming conditions, and the shoreline is a hotspot for birds (migratory, nesting, and wintering) and birders. A short boardwalk leads through a heady mess of fragrant rugosa rose bushes out to the shore, from where you can see Lubec Channel Light—one of only three “spark plug” lighthouses in Maine—in these relatively shallow waters. Amenities: parking. Best for: solitude; sunrise; walking.

The 1810 home-turned-museum contains an extensive collection of old photographs, period furniture, housewares, and other memorabilia, including quilts and ship models. Operated by and headquarters for the Machiasport Historical Society, the building hugs Route 92 as it winds through the small pretty-as-a-picture village on Machias Bay. The Marine Room highlights the area’s seafaring and shipbuilding past. A model schoolroom and post office, a display about the sardine canning industry here decades ago, and a large collection of carpentry tools occupy the adjacent Cooper House, a utilitarian building constructed in 1850.

Anchoring downtown Eastport, this waterfront district extends from the Customs House down Water Street to Bank Square and the Peavey Memorial Library. Spanning such architectural styles as Federal, Victorian, Queen Anne, and Greek Revival, the district was largely built in the 19th century. A cannon sits on the lawn at the Romanesque Revival library, one of the many interesting structures. Benches are beside an iron drinking trough-turned-fountain in front of a bank-turned-museum, the Tides Institute & Museum of Art.

The refuge's 2,178-acre Petit Manan Point Division is a sanctuary of fields, forests, and rocky shorefront at the tip of a peninsula. In August, it's a popular spot for hand-picking wild blueberries. Whatever the time of year, you can explore here on two trails. Mostly a loop, the 1.7-mile Hollingsworth Trail has a gorgeous shore stretch on Pigeon Hill Bay where it's easy to head off path to clamor on the large granite ledges. Petit Manan Lighthouse—Maine’s second tallest, on one of five lighthouse islands belonging to the refuge—towers in the distance beyond a wide cove. The 2.2-mile Birch Point Trail leads to salt marshes and mudflats on Dyer Bay, with side trails to a cove and rocky beach.

At 317 feet, Pigeon Hill is the highest coastal point in Washington County, and it doesn't disappoint, rewarding hikers with panoramic views that stretch to Schoodic Peninsula, where Acadia National Park's mainland district is located; Petit Manan Lighthouse off the end of the narrow peninsula where this land rises; and island-splattered waters farther Down East. Hike up to the summit on the short historic trail, with some steep sections, that locals have used for generations. There are also longer, easier routes on the interconnected trail system, which was created when this became a Downeast Coastal Conservancy preserve. One trail traverses an old silver mine and another passes by a glacial erratic boulder. The 185-acre preserve’s loop trail to Pigeon Hill Bay begins across the road from the parking area.

Down East’s rock- and fir-bound shores give way to the 274-acre park's half-mile crescent-shaped sand and pebble beach: one with any sand is a rarity in the region, and expansive ocean views enhance this one's beauty. Just beyond the beach you’ll find a freshwater pond that’s ideal for swimming and kayaking—rent flatwater kayaks here—and stocked for fishing. The park has changing areas (no showers), picnic area with grills, and a playground. Miles of trails traverse woods, apple orchards, and blueberry fields. The trailhead is just before the park entrance at Roque Bluffs Community Church. Amenities: parking; toilets. Best for: swimming; solitude, walking.

At the parking area for this 90-acre park, placards and a stone memorial pay homage to wooden Civil War ships the federal government burned here for scrap years after the Civil War. Items salvaged from the ships are still about town. A trail from here leads through woods and past pocket beaches and coves to a headland where you can enjoy wonderful views of Cobscook Bay and over Passamaquoddy Bay to Campobello Island. You can also see the pens for Eastport’s salmon-farming industry as well as Estes Head, where the city's cargo pier is located. The trail is part of an interconnected network totaling a few miles. There is also a short trail from the parking area to Cony Beach. 

In an 1887 landmark brick building where Water and Sea streets angle together, this museum’s focus is art depicting or connected to the Passamaquoddy Bay region from the 1800s through the present. Changing exhibits in the modern gallery range from classic maritime paintings to abstract art created by institute artists-in-residence—you may spot them working in storefront studio space across Water Street. On the main floor of this former bank, where tall windows let in lots of light for viewing, works from the large permanent collection are displayed. The institute’s other local preservation efforts include two early 1800s federal churches, Seaman’s Church (26 Middle Street) and North Church (82 High Street), and a former Grand Army of the Republic meeting hall (6 Green Street) with patriotic wall art and veteran artifacts. Check out their exteriors on a walk and check the website for special events, like concerts. The institute also hosts artist talks and has a campus about a mile from downtown with a public waterfront park on Duck Cove Road. Information and maps about its properties are on the website.

Candy cane--stripe West Quoddy Head Light marks the easternmost point of land in the United States. One of Maine's most famous lighthouses, it guards Lubec Channel as it flows into much wider Atlantic waters that also demarcate Canada and the United States. Authorized by President Thomas Jefferson, the first light here was built in 1808. West Quoddy, just inside the park entrance, was constructed in 1858. You can’t climb the tower, but the former lightkeeper’s house is a seasonal museum; there are displays about the lighthouse and its former keepers, works by local artists, and a gift shop. Plan for more than a lighthouse visit at this enticing 541-acre Bold Coast park. Whales are often sighted offshore, the birding is world-famous, and there’s a seaside picnic area. Visitors beachcomb, walk, or hike several miles of trails; a 2-mile trail along the cliffs yields magnificent views of Canada’s cliff-clad Grand Manan Island, while the 1-mile roundtrip Bog Trail reveals arctic and subarctic plants rarely found south of Canada. Leading to a lookout with views of Lubec across the channel, the western leg of the 1-mile Coast Guard Trail is wheelchair accessible. In the off-season, visitors can park outside the gate and walk in.

Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s Western Head Preserve flanks the coast south side of Cutler Harbor. This pristine 247-acre preserve is known for its awesome views. Along the steep cliffs, wind and salt spray have sculpted spruce and fir trees into odd, stunted shapes. Cranberries, iris, and juniper grow from rock ledges. There are beaches here.

Formerly Wild Blueberry Land and built to resemble a giant blueberry, the museum's deep-blue geodesic dome is home to exhibits about the beloved crop that focus on the native plant’s ecosystem; the canning of the fruit during the Civil War to help feed soldiers; local blueberry farmers; and research efforts to improve what is a managed wild crop. There's a blueberry-themed gift shop that sells items with a wild Maine blueberry theme or design like scented candles and blueberry socks; books about the crop and the culture it feeds; and foods featuring or made from the fruit such as Maine wild blueberry jam, vinegar, and chocolate truffles.