Quoddy Head Lighthouse

We traveled as far east as you can get in the continental United States today to see three RV parks.  It was a two hour drive to get there (only one trip will be longer to northern Maine from our next RV park stop.)  Quoddy Head State Park is just east of Lubec, Maine on 541 acres of land that contains the striking red and white striped lighthouse known as West Quoddy Head Light.  It is the second lighthouse built on the site and stands 83 feet above sea level.  The light can be seen 21 miles away in clear weather. 

The park contains five and a half miles of hiking trails, extensive forests and two bogs.  We tried to collect a soil sample for Jim's sister Teri here, but the forest only yielded what seems to be pine needles and moss from its soft and squishy ground cover.  Maybe sand from the beach in Bar Harbor will have to do instead for her collection of soil from every state in the U.S.

The original lighthouse was built in 1808 at a cost of $4,800 and replaced in 1858 with the present red and white tower along with a residence for the light keeper for the sum of $15,000.  Captain Joseph Smith in 1837 said, "I am informed that sometimes for twenty days in succession the fog is experienced...often when it disperses, fifty to one hundred vessels are seen in the immediate vicinity, having depended upon the fog signal to give them their position.  Indeed, the fog signal is considered of more importance than the light."  (We can verify the twenty days of fog happens here!)

Looking toward the Bay of Fundy with New Brunswick (on left) and Nova Scotia (on right) in Canada.

Today after seeing the lighthouse, we came as close to the Bay of Fundy with the highest vertical tidal range in the world and Deer Island, Canada as you can get without actually going over the bridge into Canada near Perry, Maine.  Near Perry the tides change about 26 feet a day (as opposed to 55.8 feet a day in the Upper Bay of Fundy where the famous bay narrows down in Canada!)  During a 24 hour period, 115 billion metric tons of water flow in and out of the bay.  Fascinating!