Colorful Camden: Sea Winds, Mountain Views, and Lobstah!

Maine Trip: Part 3 of 3

If you missed part 1 and 2, scroll to the bottom for links to the previous stories.

The last stop on our weeklong trip to Maine was the coastal town of Camden, Maine. Camden is only two hours or so from Bar Harbor, but we made it into a full day of exploration, which you can read about here if you missed it!

We rolled into Camden after a long day of driving through inland Maine. We were too hungry to park at our hotel and walk, so we drove downtown. Camden is small, and the main road through it is Highway 1. However, like Bar Harbor, the downtown was practically deserted despite it being a Saturday night. It was dark, but we could smell the sea off to our left and see the rows of cute shops and restaurants. We ate at Long Grain for dinner, and guess what–that’s where all the people were, and I know why because it was delicious! Unlike Bar Harbor, we got the feeling that the restaurant was mostly full of locals rather than tourists (something that was confirmed the next day when we walked through the neighborhoods to get into town).

After dinner, we explored Whitehall, the beautiful and historical inn on Highway 1 that we were staying at. The interior was adorable, a melange of blues, greens, and reds that worked in a charming and modern way. The next morning we got to appreciate the full scope of Whitehall from the outside.

The next morning dawned cold and windy–by far the chilliest day we had on the whole trip. As a result, we spent a lazy morning at Whitehall, snacking on the offered breakfast scones and reading our books on the cute chairs. My dad took off to do a hike instead, undeterred by the vicious wind.

In the afternoon, Mom and I walked into town to look in the shops and explore the town. High Street, also known as Highway 1 for the short time it’s within the Camden town limits, is a historic street with homes from the 1800s lining each side. The gardens are extensive, the trees enormous and beautiful, and most of the homes are very well kept up. East coast architecture is a charming mix of colorful shutters, columns, and multiple chimneys jutting from the roof. Additionally, since many homes along the Maine coast in the 1800s were built as vacation homes for the rich, they are sometimes absolutely gigantic.

We strolled beneath the slightly changing trees with scarves plastered around our necks and leaves swirling over our feet. Mom wore a hat and gloves, and the locals shook their heads at us. This is nothing, their eyes seemed to say. Just wait until winter.

Well, I’ll have you know, residents of Maine, that I can take cold weather, but the wind gets me every time.

In Camden, we wandered up and down High Street popping into interesting shops. We angled down to the harbor and took in Camden Falls. Surprise, surprise–part of Camden’s High Street is built directly on top of a river. Water rumbles down from beneath the Camden Deli and Marriner’s Restaurant, which are propped up on stilts. The drop is gradual, but the water swirls around the rocks in white streams until it tumbles into the small harbor.

The harbor itself holds mostly sailboats and seemed packed too tight for the boats to get out without some Rush Hour game-like maneuvering. (If you’ve never played Rush Hour, it’s a puzzle game where you have to get a red car out of a packed parking lot). It was warmer by the water, as the buildings rimming the harbor blocked the wind, and we found a place to sit and enjoyed the view.

Later, we followed the river back a little ways and crossed a cute foot bridge, then returned to High Street and got a warm drink at the Camden Deli so we could sit on the top of the falls.

We had happy hour back at our seriously cute inn, and headed back into Camden for dinner.

After the highly relaxing and low-key day that we’d enjoyed the day before, we were ready to pack Day Two full of adventures. We began with a morning hike up Mount Battie, which is the tallest mountain in Camden Hills State Park and one that looms over Camden.

Mount Battie

To get to the trailhead from Whitehall, we walked serval long blocks down High Street towards Camden, then turned on Harden Avenue. We passed young children waiting for the bus and multiple people out with their dogs. The homes were gorgeous and my favorites were those with giant slabs of rock swelling and cresting among the grass or surrounded by cheerful flowers. Like Mount Desert Island, the Camden coast is a rocky one, and the homeowners have no choice but to embrace the fifteen feet long and five feet high swells of rock rising out of the lawn.

Already the walk up Harden was a climb. The road is tilted at an angle that let us know the hike up Mount Battie, while short, would be furiously steep.

The trail head began from someone’s driveway, and immediately we were following the contour of the hill (Maine doesn’t seem to do switchbacks, perhaps because with the low altitude you can go straight up without feeling like you’re dying).

Soon, the path turns to large rocks and boulders, and you have to use your hands to scramble up some jagged rock edges. Higher up, the mountain begins to mirror the yards we saw previously, with giant bed-rock stones spread like chunky peanut butter down the steep slope. The rock was slippery and we crawled up on our hands and knees, finally reaching the top of the rocky portion. The views over Camden and the surrounding hillsides were well worth the climb (though I thought the climb was well worth the climb–I love scrambling up things).

We went a hundred yards further, on a fairly flat trail, to reach the observation tower on top of Mount Battie. It was here that we ran into a few other people.

The trail we took up Mount Battie doesn’t have a parking lot at the bottom, so it’s only for locals and people who stay nearby (or get dropped off). However, the official route to the top of Mount Battie is from the other side. You have to enter through the toll gate at Camden Hills State Park. Then you can take a nice (gentler) hike to the top, or drive.

Rockland Lighthouse

Our next stop was the Rockland Lighthouse. We reconvened at Whitehall before piling into the car and driving down the coast about ten minutes to the town of Rockland. Just before getting to town, there’s a spit of land that juts out and helps to form the protective edges of the Rockland Harbor. At the tip is a light house built at the end of a mile long break-water. which further protects the harbor from giant ocean swells and rough waves.

We were not unique in walking this breakwater to reach the lighthouse, but the breakwater was plenty wide enough for passing. Made of giant granite stones stacked together, we stepped from on to the other and listened to the water drip and crack and echo up from the 2 inch wide seams between the rocks. Gulls swooped over our heads and the water was so clear we could see the seaweed rocking and pulsing with the rhythm of the waves.

The breakwater is longer than it looks, and by the time you reach the end, the crowds of walkers have thinned and we had the lighthouse to ourselves for a while. You can’t go in, but there’s a walkway all around and a picnic table where we sat and enjoyed the sun and the waves.

Though not a scramble, the rocky, unpredictable surface of the breakwater was fun to walk, though I bet it’s even more fun in high tide when occasional water sprays shoot up from the seems in the breakwater and splash unsuspecting tourists.

We had more lobster for lunch, stopping in a place called Claws just outside of Rockland. The sun was bright, the lobster was delicious, and we had a view of the sea. What more could you want?

Camden Hills State Park

The afternoon took us to Camden Hills State Park. We drove a short way into the park and hiked the Nature Trail.

The trail was beautiful–littered with fallen leaves of yellow and red and crisscrossed with roots. Some places you can leap from rock to rock and cross bridges over small creeks. However, the highlight of the Nature Trail are the information placards interspersed among the trees.

Each shows a type of leaf and then has facts about that tree, everything from medicinal uses to cooking tips to what the logged lumber is used to make. We practically skipped down the trail with one or the other of us randomly pointing to a tree every few minutes. What kind of tree is that? A birch! A red maple! A spruce!

Call us nerds, but we like to know what we’re walking under!

There’s a small part of Camden Hills State Park that’s along the coast. You can find it across from the Mount Battie entrance.

As most of the coastline is privately owned, this small park is only a mile long, but we walked the shore path and crept down to the rocks to see the beautiful waves crashing against the rocks, like in Acadia.

We’d hoped there would be some shore-rock-scrambling, as we’d so loved in Acadia, but it was a lot steeper and the rocks didn’t come so far up the shore, so we stuck to the trail, but it was a beautiful and peaceful area. We didn’t see another soul, so it might be a forgotten part of the park, but that only made us love it more.

For our last night, we ended with one of the best meals of the trip at The Waterfront: peekytoe crab cakes, scallops, and creme brûlée. Yum!

The Drive to Portland

We choose to leave Camden early the next morning so we could linger over the drive to Portland. My favorite stop was to cross the Androscoggin Swinging Bridge. This wasn’t something we’d planned, but as we drove down Highway 1 through the town of Brunswick, I caught a glimpse of the beautiful bridge and made us stop!

Here is a fun fact about the bridge:
The bridge was built in 1892 to allow Canadian residents from Topsham, the town across the river, to cross back and forth to Brunswick to work in the factories.

We also stopped in downtown Portland and walked along the Old Port. While a touristy area, the port itself is still a working port. We watched lobster fishermen hauling in their catch, fixing buoys, and delivering lobster traps to be mended.

Then it was off to the airport and back home–though I know I’m not done with Maine. This state captured a little bit of my heart with it’s small population, fiercely colorful leaves, and rocky, wave-crashing coastlines.