Kennebec Valley from the Beach to the Mountains

There's no question that when you mention Maine, most people think of lobster, lighthouses and the rockbound coast, but some people forget about our beaches.  Most of the beaches are in York County, the southernmost county in the state, but there are some great beaches in other parts of the state as well.

Popham Beach State Park

One such place is Popham Beach.  Located in Phippsburg, about 15 miles south of Bath on Route 209, Popham Beach State Park is a white sand beach with an interesting little island you can walk to at low tide.

Fox Island off of Popham Beach is accessible during low tide.

Popham is an expansive beach that expands even more at low tide.  It's a great place for families because there is a large tidal pool near the entrance to the beach, just behind the one of the bath houses.  The sun warms up this water, so toddlers can wade and play without experiencing the colder ocean temperatures.  There are two bath houses at the park with showers, flush toilets and changing rooms.  There's also a little "river" running through the middle of he beach at low tide that is quite shallow and is a great place for little kids to sit and splash around.

Wave Jumping!

 We spent about 3 hours at the beach, jumping waves, building a sandcastle and enjoying a picnic lunch.  We were fortunate that the seagulls didn't abscond with our lunch.  Others weren't so lucky as their bags of chips where snatched from the beach blankets by hungry gulls.  You'd be surprised how bold a hungry seagull will get, and how much they can carry away, given the opportunity.

After a day of surf and sand, we headed home to rest up for our trip to the headwaters of the Kennebec River in The Forks, Maine the next day.  Today's activity was a tubing trip down the upper part of the Kennebec River that was booked through Bullfrog Adventures.  Steve and Tammy Toothaker got us all suited up with PFDs (personal floatation devices), tubes for our bodies and a tube for our cooler that held our lunch, drinks and snacks for our day on the river.

The 2-1/2 hour, 8-mile trip cost us $22 per adult, $17 for our son, and $10 for the cooler tube.  The trip starts at The Forks, which gets its name because the town is located at the convergence of the Kennebec and Dead Rivers.  The river water levels are controlled by a hydro dam several miles up stream.  Typically the water is released at about 4,500 cfm (cubic feet per minute), but on this day we were treated to a big release of 7,400 cfm due to the hot weather and higher demand for electricity, so our tubes move briskly along the river. 

Stopping for lunch along the Kennebec River

The trip is a good mix of small rapids and steadily moving water.  We stopped halfway down the river for lunch as the water continued to rise along its banks. Steve and Tammy told us that the river has many fossil rocks, so along the way, we made a stop at "Fossil Island".  This is the unofficial name dubbed by Steve because pretty much every time he stops here, he finds a fossil rock.  We made a stop on the island, but to my son's disappointment, the water was so high we didn't have much luck.

Fortunately for us, as Steve and Tammy were waiting for us at the take out spot, they found a fossil rock that they generously gave to Ashton.  The rock had impressions of shells from thousands of years ago, which he thought was pretty cool.

After loading up the van with our tubes, we headed back to Steve & Tammy's house to change and prepare for the ride home.  They also run a campground on their property, so they have modern showers and bathrooms for their campers, and tubers.

We changed out of our wet swimsuits and made a promise to ourselves to come back next year and bring some friends to enjoy this great family outing.