You just HAVE to go to Monhegan Island!

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 13, 2022

We have had several people tell us, "You just HAVE to go to Monhegan Island" while we were in Maine. While Maine has hundreds of islands off its coast, we were told that this was the best. So we left our campground at 8:15 a.m. to head towards Clyde's Point Harbor to catch a boat. We found that we were a little early, so we had time to stop at--you guessed it--a lighthouse before we sailed. Marshall Point Lighthouse is on our way today.

It has a long runway over the rocks, and is an easy lighthouse to visit.

It is most famous for its part in the Forrest Gump movie. It was from this lighthouse door that Forrest started his run across America all the way to California. Run Markie, Run!

Another couple arrived as we were leaving, and offered to take our picture on this cloudy morning.

We headed to Clyde's Point, where they have several day-cruise options. Denisa really wanted to see puffins this trip, but we found out that they have already left this area. The same thing happened to us last year in Newfoundland. It looks like our only puffin photo (again) is of the statue at the harbor. 

We have reservations for the 10:30 sailing to Monhegan Island, but the instructions said we were supposed to arrive an hour early. That gave us time to park the car and see the harbor, but we spent most of the time standing in line. Our waiting in line paid off, because it gave us a seat on the outer deck of the boat for better views on the one-hour trip to the island.

We were on our way under cloudy skies at 10:30. The first point of interest was Marshall Lighthouse, so we got a water-side view of the lighthouse we just visited this morning. It just made us want to yell, "Run Forrest, Run!"

The fishermen were out this morning, with a parade of gulls jostling for position to get any scraps. They were hauling up the lobster traps that they had baited.

The blue buoy in the picture above, and the two bright buoys in the picture below mark the location of lobster traps. In our one-hour trip we could always see buoys sprinkled across the water. This channel has rock walls, shallow water, and the perfect water temperature to insure the highest concentration of lobster. We saw thousands of color-coded buoys that are checked by their owners every 24-48 hours. As we pulled into Monhegan Island, we could see that the lobster population must be high all the way to the shore.

Denisa loves a good map to better understand what we were doing today. This island is 1.7 x 0.7 miles in size. Two-thirds is owned by a trust, and is protected as a nature preserve. Most of the lines on the map are not roads, they are trails. While there are a few buildings drawn on the map close to where our boat will arrive, there are no buildings on the other side of Monhegan Island.

We arrived at the little town at the harbor, and then set out to see that "other side."

Denisa hasn't taken too many flower pictures lately, so she has to include a couple from the little gardens of the few houses in town. On the trip over, a Mainer explained to us that this island is the way this state used to be 80 years ago. Besides a few delivery pickup trucks, there are no vehicles on the island. People vacationing on Monhegan Island walk everywhere they need to go.

Most of those vacationers are like us, just here for the day. But there are a few places to rent and stay overnight.

We obviously are going to be walking everywhere we want to go today. It didn't take long to get out of the village and onto the trail. It quickly took us into the forest that covers the center of the island.

It's an easy trail, but it did become a stair case of tree roots as we climbed up and over the crown of the island.

Soon enough, we found ourselves at the shore. We're on the Cliff Trail, that we will take us on a clock-wise hike around the entire perimeter of the island.

We started on the harbor side of the island, where we were hiking at sea level. We visited this pebble beach, where some of the pebbles were the size of chairs.  

As we continued on the Cliff Trail, the cliffs got taller. Mark scrambled down the rocks for our last close view of the Atlantic Ocean.

That's where we spotted this new-to-us bird lounging on the rocks. With bright red feet and a white wing in stark contrast to its black body, we don't remember seeing this bird before. Google thinks this is a black guillemot.

We found that this isn't an easy hike, as we headed up and up the cliffs. Some of the trail took us through the forest, but always brought us back out for awesome cliff views.

We arrived on the island at 11:30, and we had reserved the 4:30 boat ride back to the mainland. This isn't a long hike, so we thought we would have time for a leisurely lunch. But this trail is taking much longer than expected because we stopped to take way too many pictures.

Occasionally, the trail would take us closer to the Atlantic.

The rocky shore line was so beautiful! We have definitely wandered to another of God's wonders today!

Over and over, we spotted gray seals in the water below us.

This guy was swimming on his back in the water, with an upside-down smile.

It was easiest to take their pictures when we were on the shorter cliffs and felt quite close to the seals.

But then our trail would take us back up. We definitely under-estimated the elevation change on this trail. 

Even though it is only 70 degrees and we have cloudy skies and ocean breezes, we were sweating with the effort of the climbs.

We soon realized that our leisurely lunch wasn't a possibility, and we were glad that we had packed a picnic of good snacks for the day. We would rather hike and enjoy these views than eat anyway!

When we got to Lobster Cove, we spotted the rusty remains of a tugboat wreck. This landmark let us know that we were getting close to the harbor again. This boat has been laying on this shore since a stormy night in 1948. 

As we walked right by one of the few eating establishments on the island, we saw that their privacy wall was made of lobster traps. Traps like this are lying in the ocean below all those buoys that we saw on the ride over here this morning.

We took a quick picture of the village on Monhegan Island. These shingle-sided houses are rustic, but are in high demand. No new construction is allowed, and the same families have owned these houses for generations. We were told that they seldom come available for sale as they are passed down within families that have enjoyed vacations on the island all their lives.

We had planned to visit the lighthouse at the center of the island. But our legs were too tired and we ran out of time. So we took a zoomed-in picture rather than making the walk to stand beside it today.

A sizable line was already forming for the 4:30 sailing off the island. The delivery trucks were delivering luggage from people that spent the week here, or were waiting to pick up supplies that come on the passenger boat that arrives several times each day.

It was a great day on Monhegan Island, and we totally under-estimated its beauty and its rough terrain. We were glad to sit and rest during the one-hour boat ride back to the mainland. On the way, the captain of the boat alerted us that they had seen a minke whale in the area. Sure enough, we spotted it, but the whale was too far away for a picture. We were entertained by porpoises and seals, and were again amazed by the thousands of lobster traps. Once back on the mainland, we had another stop to make before heading back to our campground. This is Owls Head Lighthouse. Even though it's only 30 feet tall, it is easy to see from the water because it sits on a 100-foot cliff. After our day of hiking up and down Monhegan Island, we felt every one of those 100 feet as we walked up to the lighthouse.

We took a picture from Owls Head, where we could see a sprinkling of the islands that lay just off the coast of Maine. But the one that we will always like the best is the one we visited today. We got good advice from others, and we will pass that on to others--"you just HAVE to go to Monhegan Island."