What began as a on-water search for the petroglyph sites of Machias Bay morphed into as meandering tour of discovery of the magnificent rock formations of that bay.
After driving south from Machias past the Bucks Harbor Shopping Mall, we parked at unloaded our kayaks at Finn Beach. From there, on that rare calm and fogless morning, we paddled out of Bucks Harbor, past Bar Island, and then southwest along the cliffs to Howard Cove and Jasper Beach. Along our route, bald eagles soared high into the blue sky above the sea arches and sea caves.
Jasper Beach is a magnificent 1/2 mile beach made up of multi colored quartz and naturally polished, purplish rhyolite stones.
After returning to the northeast and past Bucks Harbor, we continued on toward the sleeping dragon of Yellow Head and then on to Bare Island, Avery Rock, Salt Island, and Round Island. After exploring Larrabee Cove (still hunting for those elusive petroglyphs), we returned south to Bucks Harbor just in time to get off the water by sunset.
We’ll go back again to search for the 3,000 year old Passamaquoddy petroglyphs, but we were very happy to have found what we did.
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Ray Wirth is a Registered Maine Guide and owner of Water Walker Sea Kayak, LLC. Comments and questions can be sent to ray@touringkayaks.com