Ogunquit, Maine Vacation in Ogunquit River

by Kyle
(Woburn, MA)

One of my favorite vacation memories is of an Ogunquit, Maine vacation, in the Ogunquit River. On a hot summer day I loved to float down the river on the ebb tide.

The beach at Ogunquit is huge at low tide, and much smaller at high tide. There's a tidal river that flows in behind the beach and fills a marsh when the tide is in. In the summer, the water warms up in there during the flood, and then flows out on the ebb.

You can walk up the river along the sandy bank and get in right around the draw footbrdge that connects the beach to town. Just tread water or float to keep yourself up, enjoy the (relatively) warm water, and let the outgoing tide carry you on a winding course past the back of the beach, along the edge of town, and then out past the main beach.

As you get out to the area where the river ends and feeds back into the ocean, the water gets shallower, and it's easy just to get your footing and walk back to the main beach. (The colder ocean water will make you want to do this anyway.) The bottom is soft sand all the way along. It's one of the best ways to get into the water in Maine without too much cold.

And, when the tide does go all the way out...

...the main Ogunquit beach is one of the prettiest anywhere. The sand flats stretch out for what seems like miles, with little tidal pools, lots of room for frisbee, wiffle ball, of just walking.

After a day on the beach, you can walk the mile or so from town, along the Marginal Way footpath to Perkins Cove where there are a lot of restaurants.

The Cove is pretty pricey, though, so if you prefer something a little less expensive, there are also places north of Ogunquit along Route 1 in Wells. Best way to travel is probably by bike, because the traffic on Route 1 gets pretty thick in July and August.

One last thing about Ogunquit, Maine...

...the Ogunquit Memorial Library is great. It's in an old fieldstone building on the south side of town. It's a great place to spend a couple hours with a novel on a summer afternoon. And if you're nice to the desk clerk, they might let you take out DVDs overnight even if you're not a local.