Canada hugs more than half our state and if you toss in the ocean we are surrounded mostly by an international border or water. If your plan is to pack up and move to Canada, just know that if you cross the border via the F.D. Roosevelt International Bridge, Campobello Island is as far as you’ll get by car. You’d have to jump on a boat to get anywhere else in Canada. This almost makes it sound like visiting this island would be a wrong turn, down a one-way, but it is most definitely not.

On this trip, we knew we wanted to spend one day visiting Quoddy Head State Park and a day exploring Shackford Head State Park in Eastport, Maine. After some research, it made a ton of sense to stay on this picturesque island instead of stateside at an Inn or Airbnb. Eloise is a bit too coo-coo pants for an Inn and that’s not really our jam anyways, even before becoming parents. Airbnbs out this way are slim pickings and when you toss in all the added fees, we felt that the prices were way too high for shacking up in someone’s outdated cape. Maybe this is different during the tourist season and there are more options but on this trip we opted to stay on Campobello Island at An Island Chalet.

Honestly, even if there were more options this place would be our first choice from now on. The cottages are right on the water and with the US > CA exchange rate, it was also a lot cheaper to make this our home base. All pros and no cons, unless you don’t have a passport. Also, kids only need their birth certificates until the age of 16 and that is coming from a much more reliable source than us…a CBP Officer.

Shackford Head State Park is about a 55 minute commute by car from the island, but would probably be a 5 minute boat ride; which wasn’t annoying until we were standing, staring across the bay and we could see the island directly from the park lookout.

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Lubec (population 1,263) is the easternmost town in the US and Eastport (population 1,267) is the easternmost city. Sounds like this was a compromise for the “easternmost” title based off population size. Before you enter in Eastport, you make your way by the Passamaquoddy Pleasant Point Reservation. It’s a beautiful drive with lots of deer and fresh air!

We beelined it right for the park that morning because we knew we would be spending half of the day there. We didn’t realize that we were also visiting a Civil War memorial as well. After parking and gearing up for the hike, we noticed there was a short trail down to Cony beach. After starting to make our way over the main trail head, we stumbled on the memorial. We never dive too much into the history of these parks because that is better served in person, but there was something extremely eerie and cool about looking out on Cony beach after reading the plaques on-site. This was the location in which the US burned 5 of our own war ships in the early 1900s to salvage the brass and iron from the war vessels. Looks like the extreme tides were put to good use after these boats more than did their jobs. What sight that must have been for the locals and it was wild imagining all of this while looking out onto the beach.

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We jumped on the Overlook Trail and by the end of the visit we had hiked 3 miles or so through a wonderful network of trails. It felt more like 5 miles because parts of it were slow going with a lot of ice in spots. It was that springtime melt during the day and freeze at night season. Thankfully we packed the heavy duty metal crampons, otherwise this day would have been cut short. Look at this trail map and tell us this doesn’t look like the perfect walk in the park!

The views were breathtaking and you’ll want to take a break at the scenic overlook with some snacks. Making your way down to Ship Point is a must if you have time. An absolute must is taking Schooner Trail on your way in or out (doesn’t matter). It certainly adds to the trek but we promise you wont regret walking along Cobscook Bay. We aren’t birders but there were birds galore. Our fingers were crossed for a bald eagle but we didn’t see one here on this day.

The fatigue of the hike and chill of a brisk spring day, certainly set in by the time we returned to the car. It wasn’t too much but it was definitely enough for the day. Eloise isn’t getting lighter in the pack and she just wanted to walk toward the end; which was a welcomed break for Dad. Mom wasn’t getting less pregnant (7 months) after those miles and deserved some well earned rest.

We’ll be honest, this was a destination park that we never really talked about over the last 2 years. Kind of like, when we get to it, we get to it. Between stumbling on a ship burning beach at the start and a peninsula of a park, we were definitely caught off guard and completely underestimated where we were going. As you can tell, we did next to zero research beforehand so the day was full of surprises. Dad gave Shackford Head State Park an 8 and Mom gave it a 9 so we used a professional mediator and settled on 8.5 Rubies.

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We quickly scanned Eastport for lunch spots but seeing that 90% of the city wasn’t open for business yet, we opted for a late lunch back in Lubec. We didn’t realize until we got home, that the Waco Diner was open year-round and it holds the title as the “oldest restaurant” in Maine. That is what we get for trying to “go with the flow” on this trip and planning less. A missed opportunity for sure and we are suckers for that kind of stuff but just another reason to visit again! None of that mattered on this afternoon because Uncle Kippy’s in Lubec more than hit the spot and they couldn’t have been nicer to our starving crew. Loaded up with sandwiches, burgers and poutine, we ate, napped and played back at our cozy cottage for the rest of the night.

Campobello Island should probably get its own post but we didn’t get to fully explore Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Beside the grocery store, nothing is really open on the island until May and that includes the park. We will certainly be back to visit with both kids someday. On this trip we got to know the lay of the land and our cottage was less than 5 minutes from the Roosevelt summer cottage, so of course we had to at least sneak a peek of that before leaving.

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On top of the hill, overlooking Lubec and just before crossing the bridge back into the US, a bald eagle soared above us and over the bay. It would be a long drive home but none of the 3 of us seemed to mind on this one, maybe not truly realizing that this would be our last state park trip as the original 3. Something that started out as a silly family mission and then here we are 23 state parks later and a couple, two-three memories. Soon we’ll have an even number to our crew and we couldn’t be more excited to finish this together. Then who knows what will be next…

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