Birch Point Beach State Park, Owls Head, mid-coast Maine

This small park - Birch Point Beach State Park - is a quiet get-away, off the beaten track, and popular with local residents. Drive through the open gate to the end of a dirt road, and step onto the beach. There are outhouses, and picnic facilities, but no lifeguard or regular staff. And there is no fee!

Slide Show

View the Slide Show to see pictures of interesting geologic features at the park, including the beach and the rocks on the points. The slide show runs automatically in about four minutes, or you may click through it at your own pace.

Browse

Some highlights are reproduced here for browsing.

A pocket beach

A dune of cobbles

Sand "hats" on cobbles

Granodiorite rock with even texture

Granite with porphyritic texture

Enclaves of darker rock

Smooth bedrock surface with marks made by a glacier

References

Ayuso, Robert A., and Arth, Joseph G., 1997, The Spruce Head composite pluton; an example of mafic to silicic Salinian magmatism in coastal Maine, northern Appalachians in Sinha, A. Krishna, Whalen, Joseph B., and Hogan, John P. (editors), The nature of magmatism in the Appalachian orogen: Geological Society of America, Memoir 191, p. 19-43.

Osberg, Philip H., and Guidotti, Charles V.,1974, The geology of the Camden-Rockland area in Osberg, Philip H. (editor), Guidebook for field trips in east-central and north-central Maine: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, 66th Annual Meeting, Orono, Maine, p. 48-60.

Tucker, R. D., Osberg, P. H., and Berry, H. N., IV, 2001, The geology of a part of Acadia and the nature of the Acadian Orogeny across central and eastern Maine: American Journal of Science, vol. 301, no. 3, p. 205-260.

Web text and photos by Henry N. Berry IV.

This web site is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Charles V. Guidotti of the University of Maine, who visited this place with many students through the years (even though it's igneous rock).

Web site by Henry N. Berry IV

Originally published on the web as the June 2009 Site of the Month.

Last updated on April 12, 2012