City: Portland, ME

Category: Parks & Recreation

Telephone: (207) 781-2330 (October throug

Description: The Scarborough Marsh office of the Maine Audubon Society leads a variety of canoe and kayaking tours of Scarborough Marsh during the warmer months of the year. Scarborough Marsh is about a 15-minute drive from downtown Portland. The 3,100-acre estuary is the largest salt marsh in Maine, and it’s a magnet for wildlife looking to rest, feed, and breed. You can take a self-guided tour of the marsh in a canoe or kayak (at least one person in the group must be 18 or over). The center also provides guided daytime and nighttime tours. Kayak and canoe rentals are available daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and cost $13 per hour for members, $15 per hour for nonmembers. You can also rent for a half day for $50 per person. Rentals include a map and a nature guide. A guided canoe tour costs $10 for adults ($11 for nonmembers), $8 for children age 12 and younger ($9 for nonmembers). Daytime tours last an hour and a half, and guides take care to point out the area’s unique flora and fauna. The trips are designed for all levels of paddlers. Also available are the special Full Moon Canoe Tour at night, the Sunset Canoe Tour in the evening, and the Early Morning Canoe Tour just after dawn. These tours run intermittently throughout the summer and cost just $1 more per person than the daytime tours.