1. Home Port Inn
City: Lubec, ME
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (207) 733-2077 or (800) 457-20
Address: 45 Main St.
Description: One of the bright spots on Lubec’s down-at-the-heels Main Street, this 1880s bed-and-breakfast has seven rooms, each with a private bath. Several overlook Cobscook Bay and Eastport across the way. Some have four-posters and antiques, others handpainted tiles and sitting chairs. Very pleasant, and the dining room here is recommended as well.
2. Quoddy Head State Park
City: Lubec, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 941-4014 (off-season)
Address: Box 1490
Description: West Quoddy Head Light is the biggest attraction at this, the nation’s most easterly state park, but nature lovers know that the real treats here are the soaring cliffs and jutting headlands overlooking the Bay of Fundy and Grand Manan Island. Grand is the word. The lighthouse located just outside the park’s grounds is nice and all, in a tall, red-and-white-striped kind of way, but the shoreline that it protects is nothing short of astonishing. Rising above the highest tides in the country, these cliffs approach 100 feet tall, lording over waters often frequented by spouting whales. A trail wanders along the cliffs for close to 2 miles, occasionally letting out onto rocky ledges that are great for tide pooling or simply watching the crashing surf and the seabirds. The going is of moderate difficulty, climbing and falling through a dense, pleasantly scented pine forest, and benches are set at the outset of the walk and at a few places here and there along it. A little over a half mile from the outset is Gulliver’s Hole, a frothy sea pocket that’s worth checking out. All told, there are 4.5 miles of trails, including a boardwalk that leads inland to a mossy bog, where there are signs identifying this heath and that fern. Fun to peruse, it’s a National Natural Landmark. Near the light, there are picnic tables where you can enjoy a fine spread before a world-class backdrop. But you want to get out on that trail—the nice thing is, relatively few people make it more than a few hundred feet down it, so you’ll have it all to yourself. The park is officially open from May 15 through October 15 but allows snowshoers and nature walkers in the winter, too.
3. Cottage Garden
City: Lubec, ME
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (207) 733-2902
Address: North Lubec Rd.
Description: Two acres of old-fashioned roses, delphiniums, and other flowers sit at this public garden against the backdrop of beautiful Cobscook Bay. Orchards are all around.
4. Home Port Inn
City: Lubec, ME
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (207) 733-2077 or (800) 457-20
Address: 45 Main St.
Description: Lubec isn’t exactly bursting at the seams with fine restaurants, and this place is the best of them. The dining room is in a pretty old 1880s inn, tastefully done, and the menu is slanted toward seafood. You might start with some cold smoked salmon, move on to Down East scampi, flounder, or steak au poivre, and finish up with some blueberry shortcake. Reservations are advisable. Open from 5 to 8 nightly.
5. West Quoddy Light
City: Lubec, ME
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (207) 941-4014 (winter)
Address: West Quoddy Head Rd.
Description: West Quoddy Light has a lot of unique distinctions: It sits on the easternmost point of land in the United States, it presides over the most dynamic tides in the nation, and it’s Maine’s only red-and-white-striped tower. The pretty light station was built in 1808 on the order of Thomas Jefferson and is the focal point of Quoddy Head State Park, one of the more breathtaking of the parks in the state’s system. The views that stretch before it are absolutely astonishing. The light itself is positioned near some of the tallest cliffs in Maine and overlooks all the world, it seems. On the horizon, across the Grand Manan Channel, is Grand Manan Island, a tall, arcing isle in New Brunswick, Canada. Whales frequently swim through the channel and can be spotted from the lighthouse grounds often enough in summertime that people like to sit here and look for them. The tides below swing as much as 24 feet in and out. The light was built in 1808 and rebuilt 50 years later, and its beacon still shines through its original Fresnel lens. The lightkeeper used to have to ring a fog bell by hand to warn approaching vessels; later a steam-powered foghorn was put in place. The light was automated in 1988 and became part of Quoddy Head State Park. Because the property is state owned, you can get right up and have a close look. Then you’ll want to wander the 4.5 miles of trails here, which skirt 100-foot cliffs, splinter off to amazing overlooks, wend through cool bogs, and more. Very worthwhile. Quoddy Head State Park is open from May 15 through October 15.