New Brunswick – Campobello Island – FDR’s Retreat

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It’s always a problem when I start researching the ‘next’ place to go because it always ends up that we want to go everywhere. It started out with a gift shop picture of West Quoddy Head Light which looked appealing with its red and white horizontal striped tower. Where was it? Reading a bit further I remembered that it’s located at Quoddy Head on Campobello Island. We stopped there briefly with Nine of Cups on our way to St. Andrews-by-the-Sea back in 2002. We were on foot then when we dinghied to shore from the boat, so we didn’t do much exploring at the time. It might be fun to go back there. Was it on the way to anywhere we’d planned? Absolutely not, but then so what?

Our Route to Campobello Island

We’ve got an interesting story about St. Andrews and our cat, Jelly. If you’ve got the time, you might enjoy it. Click here.

Campobello Island, by dint of its name, is one of those places that’s not easy to get to. We could take two ferries to the island or, alternatively, cross the border dipping into Maine through Calais and Lubec, and cross back into Canada and onto the island via the FDR Memorial Bridge. The bridge sounded like a good option, plus it would give us a chance to gas up at U.S. prices (yes, complain all you want, but US prices for gas are a bargain after what we’d been paying in Canada) and stock up on a few essentials (like wine and beer) at more favorable prices as well. We were off!

We stopped briefly in St. Andrews, but it was a weekend and the streets were mobbed with tourists. We continued on to the border crossing at St. Stephens, NB-Calais, ME, crossed without incident, filled up with gas at $3.39/gallon (yowza!) and headed to the Calais Walmart for food, supplies and an overnight parking spot.

The border crossing at Calais, Maine was quick and easy.

We followed the scenic Downeast Acadia Route, US-1, to Lubec and since we were too early to check into the campground, we stopped at West Quoddy Head Light for views and a short one-mile RT hike on the Coast Guard Trail. The lighthouse holds the distinction of being the easternmost lighthouse in the USA on the easternmost point of land in the United States. Built in 1808, the light still shines through its original Fresnel lens.

West Quoddy Head Light

We crossed Lubec Narrows via the FDR Memorial Bridge. The Canadian Border Control Station was waiting for us and we crossed back into Canada once again. The Lubec Channel Light stands in the middle of the Narrows. Established in 1890, this channel light, still in operation, is one of three surviving ‘sparkplug’ lights in the state.

Lubec channel ‘Sparkplug’ Light

We went directly to the Herring Cove Provincial Park Campground and checked in. The campground is old and dated. The dirt entrance road is very rough and rutted. The toilet facilities are well-worn and desperately in need of an update. That said, our campsite was spacious, very private and densely treed. Big roots and rocks made for an uneven site. We asked to move across the way and since there were plenty of sites available, we had no problem moving to a more suitable site for our stay.

Once settled in, we headed back out to explore the island a bit. Our first stop was Roosevelt Campobello International Park for a quick look-see. The park is free admission to all with a nice Visitor Center. We picked up a trail map and got our bearings.

Roosevelt Campobello International Park Visitor Centre

We walked the Friar’s Head Trail, but the tide was too high on the beach to see the eponymous rock formation. It was a lovely, long walk up a gravel road and then onto a rocky, heavily rooted, hilly forest path and observation deck overlooking Passamaquoddy Bay, an inlet of the Bay of Fundy. A rain shower moved in and we were soaked by the time we returned to Blanche.

View from Friar’s Head Trail Observation Deck. The rainclouds were moving in fast.

The showers persisted off and on. We ventured to the nearby Mulholland Point Lighthouse for a closer look. Built in 1884, this octagonal wooden lighthouse is the only lighthouse shared by both Canada and the USA and is located within the International Park.

Mulholland Point Light

From our vantage point at the lighthouse, we had great views of Lubec, Maine across the Narrows and the FDR Memorial Bridge.

We’d planned a return visit to Roosevelt Campobello International Park to check out the ‘cottages’… summer residences of the wealthy. Among them, Eleanor and FDR’s 34-room summer cottage.

The Roosevelt 34-room summer cottage

The tours for FDR’s cottage were all booked up, but we were able to get a quick peek into the Roosevelt’s next-door neighbors’ summer digs, the Hammond Cottage. Among other features, their luxurious cottage featured a unique oval picture window overlooking the bay. Most of the summer residences are now the property of the park.

We returned to the campground in the late afternoon, cooked dinner and sat outside in our camp chairs enjoying the evening and planning the next day. Since we were on the far western point of the Atlantic Time Zone and under a canopy of thick trees, the morning sun didn’t appear till well after 7am. On the other hand, we had daylight till 8pm or later. That said, the late sunrise made for a lazy, late start the next morning.

We managed to arrive at Head Harbour Light in time for the low tide. We had been too late to cross the tiny bar that connects the lighthouse to the mainland the previous day. The Fundy Tides rise quickly and crossing is prohibited a couple hours after low tide. We were just in time this day.

Head Harbour Light showing the crossing bar that’s under several feet of water at high tide.

We paid our $5/pp admission fee and began the short trek down a steep, slimy seaweed-laden rusty metal staircase, across a wet rocky, seaweed-slippery trail, then across a short sandy beach, and finally up another slimy staircase to the lighthouse. From a distance, the lighthouse looks beautiful. Up close it’s in rough shape. We retraced our steps watching the water edge closer and closer as the tide began its inward flow. Another hour or two and the beach path would be totally underwater.

A couple of interesting signs and miscellaneous sights we encountered on the island.

Back at the campground, we packed up and prepared to depart Campobello in the morning. Our plan was to head back into New Brunswick for a bit more exploration. Join us next time for a delightful stop in Eastport, Maine, and a visit to Fredericton, New Brunswick’s provincial capital.