Exploring Newburyport and Plum Island

Newburyport and Plum Island are easily accessible day trip options from Boston which offer a good mix of New England town and nature activities.

Newburyport

First up was a morning kayak trip. The outfitter we chose, Plum Island Kayak, had us paddle on a self-guided tour up the Merrimack River (this was decided based on the tides). The scenery of the trees along the river near the starting point was picturesque, and there are a lot of neat (vacation?) homes along the river. As we ventured further up the river the wind intensified and made the going tough. It was also not very pleasant kayaking among boats riding with full wake. It also turns out we were kayaking at quite a fast pace and managed to get to the loading area early, but a couple of folk in our group were more than 30 minutes late. The guided tours might offer a better experience, but I would hesitate to repeat the self-guided tours.

The trees on the riverbanks of the Merrimack River, along with this rustic bridge, were really quite pretty.

After kayaking we hit up Newburyport for lunch. While there are quite a few pricy options, a quick Google search led us to Loretta. The air-conditioned restaurant was a welcome respite from the summer heat, and the lunch menu was quite delicious and very well-priced (our group ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna, Hot Pastrami, Croque Monsieur, and Loretta Burger, and we all liked them). Their clam chowder was also very good. For dessert we hit up Figtree Kitchen. We tried their Apple Fig Wee Tart, a chocolate croissant, and a couple of scones and had a relaxing dessert break.

The brick buildings along State Street are nicely preserved and have the characteristic New England look. There’s also a small town square where State Street meets Merrimac Street which had a lot of fun booths. We continued to the waterfront and looped around to the Oldies Marketplace. There are actually a ton of great finds on antiques and used items which are reasonably priced, and the shop is really big.

The boardwalk along the waterfront is pleasant.

Plum Island

Before driving to the nature reserves on Plum Island we were warned by a local about how the traffic into the island is extremely bad and can stretch for hours. We were also warned about nasty bugs called “greenheads” that can rip open your flesh and make island not worth visiting. In addition, we were warned by Google that the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island would close when we got there (their hours on Google are 9 AM to 5 PM). At least on our visit, none of the above were true (thankfully!) for the reasons below:

• We entered the island at around 4:30 PM, which is after much of the morning traffic headed to the beaches subsides.
• Greenheads are a type of horsefly that do indeed rip open human flesh to suck on blood(there were warning signs about these when we entered the wildlife refuge). However, greenhead season had come to a close when we visited on July 30th. A good constant breeze also helps to keep them away.
• The Parker River National Wildlife Refuge and Sandy Point State Reservation are open dawn to dusk in the summer.

Make sure to bring cash though as there’s a $5 fee to get into the refuge. There’s a lot of great stuff to do in the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. I’d check out the Hellcat Interpretive Trails, a well-maintained boardwalk trail that does a great job of sampling the dunes and marshes on Plum Island. Not only is there a ton of great wildlife (we saw sand plovers and swans), but also there are excellent views (definitely recommend coming a couple of hours before sunset!). The marsh grasses are especially impressive and some grew almost twice my height!

These were at least 10-12 feet tall! Crazy.

We then headed to another park within the refuge, Sandy Point State Reservation. The beaches here are pretty family friendly (although the water is cold), and it’s a great place to picnic.

I thought these lines in the sand from the receding tide looked really cool.

Finally, we headed back to the first parking lot for sunset above the larger dunes. A certain portion of the area was closed off for bird mating season, but that didn’t stop us from getting a glimpse of the coastline. It really is a pretty sight!

This is from the top of a boardwalk. Imagine walking along that beach during sunrise…

Getting There

Newburyport is an easy one hour drive from Boston. Driving through the town can be pretty slow especially at peak hours, but I parked a little bit farther and walked into the downtown area. There is also a train to Newburyport, but there are no public transit options as of this post between Newburyport and Plum Island.