City: Scarborough, ME

Category: Parks & Recreation

Address: Route 9

Description: When you start off down the trail here, just up Route 9 from the wide green expanse of Scarborough Marsh, all you can hear is cars going by and orders being called out at Ken’s Place, a seafood joint, across the street: “One-thirty-nine, please, one-thirty-nine.” After a few minutes of walking, though, the traffic noise fades to a quiet hiss—like a waterfall in the distance—and it’s eventually replaced by wind in the grass, birdcalls, and the singing of the trees. Then things get very pleasant. The town-owned 56-acre nature preserve is threaded with 1.5 miles of trails—grass, gravel, and dirt—none of which seems particularly well used. The nicest part of a hike through the area, though, is the front seat it gives you on Scarborough Marsh, the state’s largest estuary and a truly stunning little bit of sea. Green ocean grasses, swirling rivers of salt water, and the open ocean beyond it fill your field of vision, and you actually have to look around a bit to find signs of civilization. You’re sure to see a variety of birds, and perhaps something exotic. Open all year, sunrise to sunset.