Critics seem to look for the negative in everything. That’s why a review from a normal person seems to speak more to the average person. A review on Yelp or TripAdvisor often carries more weight with us than from a paid professional in an online or printed publication. Even when a critic finally likes something, they still seem to make a dig, here and there. What a terrible way to go about life and experiencing things. With that being said, sometimes the food just isn’t great or you catch a server on a bad day/week…or they just are not meant to work with the public and haven’t realized it yet. You can only ignore the signs for so long before it’s obvious that a place just isn’t worth your time or money. We then try to pull the good out of what we can and move on.

You can probably see where this is headed. Scarborough Beach State Park is beautifully located near the Black Point Inn and Prouts Neck. Just looking at its location on Google Maps you’d say this would be a welcome sight for any beach goer, but this park has clearly been surviving only on its looks. This isn’t a bad thing, and that works for some people, but we weren’t loving it. Eloise, on the other hand, was. Of course she would, she’s kid and there’s water, sand and birdies. So at the end of the day, it wasn’t a total loss because our child had a wonderful day and after focusing on the good we had a nice time too.

Scarborough Beach is often left off the master list of Maine state parks. Why? It’s not that other people don’t love it. This place was beyond mobbed on our visit, which is another reason why it wasn’t ideal. The reason it’s off most lists, except for the maine.gov list is because this facility is operated in a public/private partnership by Black Point Resource Management LLC, and because of this Maine State Park passes are not valid at Scarborough Beach. That’s right, they won’t accept your park pass. We knew that before coming but figured they would take debit cards…nope. When we pulled up the only thing that resembles a Maine state park is the sign out front. All of the other signs appear to be hand written with markers on white boards. Honestly, the little girl selling lemonade had a more professional set up than this park. It would appear to an outsider that it was a family run operation. The staff were really nice, even when putting up with some rude beach goers. The parking situation is a nightmare and didn’t seem to bring out the best in people on a gorgeous Sunday in July. Everything you’d love about the parking lot at Crescent Beach State Park is the exact opposite here.

We tried to keep our glasses half-full, even after the long walk from the overflow parking field across the street, but when we reached the shore the beach was packed. Yes, it was 11AM and we were running behind because of a bad night’s sleep, but between the number of people and the amount of washed up seaweed, it took a while before we were able to cram into a spot. At this point we both were a little annoyed, especially after just visiting the incredible Ferry Beach State Park a few weeks prior.

We sat down, quickly filled our bellies with Amatos and started to rebound in the right direction. Eloise didn’t miss a beat and we jumped on her positive train. So, some positives… It’s a swimmers beach. Well, suffers too, but we didn’t see any in our area. The park has surf board and wet suit rentals if you feel inclined to try. The water here is actually warm and the waves are awesome, like really awesome, compared to most places in southern Maine. Out of all the beaches we’ve been to, this one definitely had the most people in the water. Mainely Burgers had a food truck set up for grub and they never disappoint.

Lifeguards could be seen throughout the beach and they warned of what to do if you get caught in a riptide (swim parallel to the shore to get out of the rip, instead of swimming toward the shore).

Outhouse style bathrooms, consistent with other state parks we’ve been to.

Lastly, it’s downright beautiful in and around this area. Anytime you’re on a beach, life is good, it just took us a while to warm up to it. Listening to Eloise laugh while crashing into the waves erases all the silly little stuff above. And watching her play with her snack cup, rock shovel and sticks was a treat as well because we somehow forgot all of her beach toys at home (it was an off day!). With 80lbs of beach stuff we of course forget the lightest things.

Our opinion is if you live or work in Scarborough, this state park might make complete sense. Even if you are shacking up at a nearby Air BnB, by all means check this place out for yourselves, but if you’re looking to take the family on a weekend beach day at one of the state parks, we would recommend a handful of others first. Therefore, with our first somewhat less than upbeat review, we give Scarborough Beach State Park 5 Rubies. It probably would have received a 4 if it wasn’t so darn pretty and the giant waves did help push it up another Ruby.

We did extend the day with a little family bike ride to Harmon’s Dairy Bar and back (2 miles). They have amazing ice cream and it was a sweet way to end the day. Burned 100 calories to consume 500, life is all about balance.

Beach hair, don’t care