No, this isn’t the popular Ferry Beach in Scarborough, but the actual state park in Saco. Ferry Beach State Park is our 15th state park visit as a family, and this time we had some friends join us! After looking at the beautiful weather forecasted for that Saturday in early July, it was a last minute, Friday evening decision to head to the beach on Saturday morning. Each of us sent out group texts to family and friends that the weather looked perfect for a beach day and to come one, come all.

Ferry Beach State Park is approximately 35 minutes from our home in Portland. We often spend our beach days at the wonderful Crescent Beach State Park because it is what we know and love, but one of the many benefits of visiting all these parks is that it’s forcing us to venture out and see new places. And after this visit, Ferry Beach State Park might be our new spot!

Beach trips are not heavy lifting and they shouldn’t be. Come late, leave early, swim or don’t swim, whatever and who cares. After a couple camping trips, other jam packed weekends and both of us training for races this summer, we needed a beach bum day. With the 4^th of the July just a few days earlier, it seemed like others felt the same way and before we knew it, we had a group of 16. Adults were outnumbered by little humans, sun tents, wagons, snacks, shovels and pales.  We had such a great time and couldn’t have planned for a better crew.

Out of the entire group, to our knowledge no one had been to this beach/state park before. We have all experienced Old Orchard Beach just down the road and know what that has to offer. It’s great, but everyone could probably give you their different reasons why it is not their #1 beach, or maybe why those days are behind them. Old Orchard Beach (OOB) is a tourist beach and is often very crowded, but it holds a special place in both of our hearts. Danielle’s family came down once a year when she was a child and stayed at Bailey’s Family Campground. They spent their days at the beach and downtown. Ray came up from Connecticut every single year and stayed directly on the ocean with his crew in a beautiful, never been updated motel. Some of our fondest memories from our childhoods came from the summers in this area. There is a good chance we were there at the same time too. That all being said, once you live here, you realize there is a great big world outside of the typical tourist spots. Other lesser known places often bring something better to the table. From the sands of Ferry Beach, you can see OOB in the distance and it feels like another planet compared to where you are standing.

Ferry Beach State Park on July 7th

Old Orchard Beach on July 4th

Ferry beach is quiet but not so quiet that you have to tell your child to stop being loud. It’s a state park so that means families out number everyone. The wide boardwalk leading up to the beach must be home to many social media accounts…guilty as charged! We even saw a bride and groom taking their wedding photos here on our way out. It was awkward, well they were awkward, but hey, congrats anyway you two crazy kids.

Our group spent several hours playing at the beach. The beach was clean, the water was shallow so we could walk out fairly far into the water, the water was cold, as it always is in Maine, but that didn’t stop us from going in.  It was a beautiful day in the sun with amazing people in a picturesque setting. Danielle forgot the nice camera at home so this post is sponsored and was captured by Apple Inc. Disclaimer though, the waterproof iPhone 7 is not in fact waterproof. So, this post is also sponsored by the fine folks at We Fix It phone repair on Brighton Ave. in Portland.

Eloise was close to falling asleep when we first arrived but of course she powered her way through the entire visit because she doesn’t want to miss a thing. She has FOMO like the best of them. While packing up the car to leave, we looked over at her in the car seat and she was already asleep. A new personal record for sure.

Just because we didn’t want to leave our beach chairs all day, that doesn’t mean this park stops with just the beach. There is a network of trails on site. If you are someone who can’t sit still in your chair, you can make your way into the woods just steps away from the sand. It would be a great way to break up the day. We saw a lot of walkers and joggers coming in and out of the trails.

The facilities are sufficient, with toilets, showers and a changing station! If you don’t think this a big deal, A LOT of popular beaches in Maine do not have restrooms. There is a group picnic area and many picnic tables under a canopy of trees. A prefect spot for a summer birthday party. The ranger station takes debit cards if you don’t have cash or the park pass. Get a park pass!

Last mention is the Nature Center which is located next to the parking lot. What an added treat and a bonus unlike any of the other state park beaches we have visited.

You could easily spend an hour in there. Let’s say if the weather wasn’t perfect, you could entertain adults and kids in here with all there is to look at and even TOUCH. There is nothing better than a sign telling you to touch something, it almost takes a minute to register that it’s okay. They even have a coloring table! The State of Maine has blessed us with these incredible parks on locations that you sometimes couldn’t dream up but then they go above and beyond with things like this center.

It feels wrong to give this place 10 Rubies when we had never been here before and it’s so close to home, but as a beach state park it has more of park feel than a place like Crescent. That is what puts it over the top for us. If you haven’t been here before, you should make a day of it soon and don’t wait like we did. There is a good chance that this is now our go-to spot for beach days. You know you live in an amazing place when you can pull a last minute beach day, close by and in a location like Ferry Beach State Park.

Parking Lot