This is our first post so please bear with us in format and blogging skills. I’m sure there’s a Groupon for a blogging class but “aint nobody got time for that.” However, we would like to thank Chrystie Vachon for at least standing us up straight and showing us how to get started.

Out of all the state parks in Maine, why did we pick Owls Head as the first to conquer as a family? That’s easy, we picked it because it was easy. So many people in Maine are hunkered down indoors or travel somewhere warm this time of year. February and March in Maine are always two tough months; past the spirit of the holidays, when we look forward to having snow for a white Christmas, but we aren’t yet experiencing the warm spring days that usually greet us in April. It’s easy to feel gloomy, and cabin fever can start to set in. So what was the perfect solution to break our fever? We rented a cabin for the night just outside of Camden. I know being in a cabin doesn’t seem like it would fix our cabin fever, but it was exactly what these new parents needed. It felt good to get away from our day to day lives for a night.  We loaded up the SUV, dogs and all. When you have one cool bulldog, people line up to watch him. When you add a second, 80 lb, hyper bulldog, even the places that you pay don’t want to watch them. We do realize that both our dogs together are high maintenance and a lot to deal with, so we needed to find a place that would allow them to come with us. After a quick google search, we found Point Lookout Resort. They accept dogs (2 per cabin) and there isn’t a weight limit. I never understood why places cater to little dogs because they are usually the loudest, and the meanest.

Point Lookout is located in Northport, Maine, just minutes from the cute little town of Camden. Camden Hills State Park was just 6 miles away, but we decided to visit that park another time since it was the coldest day of the year and didn’t want to expose Eloise to the frigid temps. Instead, we headed to our nice, warm Point Lookout cabin.

This place is amazing and is perfect for ALL families. The resort has many family fun amenities, like a fitness center with squash, racquetball, tennis, & gymnasium, a 10-pin bowling alley featuring an arcade, billiards, foosball, event room, and large screen TV’s, many hiking trails, Knight’s Pond, Penobscot Oceanfront Park with a private beach, and a professional turf soccer field, to list a few. Our cabin came equip with a propane fireplace, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and nice open concept living area with full kitchen. We chose not to cook and got takeout from Pizza Permare, 4 miles down the road. The dough tastes homemade, the sauce is fresh and it’s cooked via wood-fired oven. Yum! To wash it down, visit Cellar Door Winery’s barn, winery and vineyard just minutes away in the opposite direction. We have visited their Thompson’s Point, Portland location and love their wine. We would have liked to do a tasting, but we didn’t plan ahead and they only do tastings by appointments in the winter months. Instead we grabbed a couple bottles from Wentworth Family Grocery, which is next door to Permare’s. This grocery has everything you would need for road trips and state park supplies.

After enjoying a wonderful day and night in the cabin, we packed up the family Sunday morning and heading back toward Portland. We had planned that if the sun came out and it warmed up we would stop at Owls Head State Park. Well lucky for us, it was a sunny 19 degrees with 20 mph winds, so why not? The drive from Point Lookout to Owls Head was approximately 45 minutes, but only 10 minutes off our route back home.

We chose to visit Owls Head because of the weather, the age of our kiddo, the dogs and the size of the park. We wanted to start with a smaller park. You can camp at several state parks, and most have hiking trails, so with the time we had, it made sense to stop and enjoy this park. We prefer not going to a park to just cross it off our list. We want to experience and enjoy it. Nothing is more annoying than those who set a goal and get so fixated on completing it, they end up forgetting why they even started. When it comes to hiking, it’s often overlooked that some of the best views are along the way and not the view from the summit. So slow down and enjoy what’s in front of you at that very moment. Okay, jumping off my soap box, but if you’re one of those people who only care about the elevation of a mountain that you’ve hiked, or you’re a peak bagger, then you may not see the value of this blog.

We were the only car at Owls Head State Park when we arrived that morning, but there were several as we prepared to leave. Some people even stayed in their vehicles. It wasn’t ideal weather conditions for visiting a lighthouse on coast. The drive to the parking area is dirt with some major pot holes, probably from the winter frost, but any vehicle should have no issues passing through. You can’t see lighthouse from the parking lot, which is pretty cool. There is plenty of parking so I couldn’t imagine that being an issue, even on a busy summer day. There’s one bathroom near the dirt parking lot and it’s your standard state park outhouse.  It’s unisex and well maintained like most of them around the state. Even though a lot of them have hand sanitizer and toilet paper, it’s highly recommended you always have some in the car just in case. There is a beautiful picnic area that would be wonderful on a warmer day, but keep the kids close by because most of the green grass ends with a steep drop off down toward a rocky beach.

After parking, there’s a dirt roadway that leads to the lighthouse with views of ocean and some incredible lookouts along the way (again keep the kiddos close by).

It’s a short walk, 2 or 3 minutes, ideal for little kids who want to walk on their own. As you walk along, you’ll notice that you haven’t seen the lighthouse yet. So many lighthouses are able to be seen from a distance, this one is unique. This lighthouse is a gem. I say that because it’s extremely unique and the pictures don’t do it justice. Actually most pictures of Maine don’t fully capture what you see in person. The property is owned by the United States Coast Guard. We didn’t see any staff and had the lighthouse to ourselves for a little while.

The stairs that take you to the lighthouse are awesome. There are many of them so be prepared. Unfortunately, getting close to this lighthouse isn’t wheelchair accessible, but you can still see the beauty of it from down below. At the top it feels like the ground around you has swallowed up this lighthouse over time, because it sits only 30 feet in height. Very short for a lighthouse. I’m guessing they didn’t need to build it too tall because of the high cliff it sits on.

We won’t go into its long history, but some of the stories about this lighthouse are worth a read. You’ll learn why there is a well-deserved grave stone for a dog named “spot.” It’s also interesting that it’s rumored to be one of the most haunted lighthouses on the east coast. There are many crazy stories on record about this place since it was built in 1825. Take a minute because they are worth a quick read before going.

This is an incredibly beautiful place if you happen to be in the area, but not a destination we would specifically drive 4 hours (round trip) for. I would say 2 hours max is plenty of time to explore the park and that would include having a picnic lunch. Without a meal, you could visit door to door in an hour with the family and you’ll leave knowing you saw it all. Owls Head State Park is like when you get a tiny appetizer at a restaurant. It tastes so good, so you don’t care that it was gone in a few bites.

On our way out of town, we stopped to get Eloise a children’s book at a local book store about Andre the seal. He was the famous seal who put Rockport Harbor on the map. We of course overpaid for it like tourist, but it was worth every penny. We had to celebrate our first of many Maine adventures with our baby girl.

We are going to rate these parks as we go along with no legit system. A friend came up with the idea of giving them Rubies. So here goes…on a scale of 1-10, we give Owl’s Head state park 7 Rubies out of 10!