The Saco River: Tubing, Paddling and Sandbars

What and where

The Saco starts at Saco Lake in Crawford Notch, high in the White Mountains, and runs southeast through New Hampshire into Maine, crossing the border near Fryeburg. From there it loops through the broad Fryeburg intervale, tightens through Brownfield and Hiram, and then drops through a series of dams before reaching the sea at Camp Ellis in Saco, with Biddeford on the opposite bank.

That is three quite different rivers wearing one name:

• The mountain river in New Hampshire — fast, rocky, cold, and the domain of anglers rather than tubers.
• The sand river from Fryeburg down through Hiram — slow, wide, sandy-bottomed, and the reason most people search for this river at all.
• The working river from Bonny Eagle down to the coast — dammed, industrial in history, and now a fishing and boating corridor rather than a floating one.

The tubing and paddling stretch

The section that matters for a summer day runs roughly from Swans Falls in Fryeburg downstream through Brownfield toward Hiram. Along here the river meanders in long loops across a flat valley floor, depositing sandbars and beaches on the inside of every bend. Canoes, kayaks and tubes all work; outfitters in Fryeburg, Brownfield and Hiram rent gear and run shuttles, so you can float one-way and get a ride back to your car.

Four things people consistently get wrong:

• It takes longer than it looks. The current is genuinely slow. A stretch that looks like a two-hour float on a map is regularly four or five hours in a tube, and the last hour is always the one in full sun with no water left.
• Water level changes everything. After heavy rain the river runs fast and the sandbars disappear underwater. In a dry August the same run can mean walking your boat through shallows. Check flow conditions with an outfitter the morning you go, not the week before.
• The rules are real and locally enforced. Towns along the river regulate camping on the sandbars, alcohol and glass containers, and the regulations have tightened over the years in response to crowding and trash. Confirm current restrictions with the town or your outfitter before you plan an overnight.
• Summer Saturdays are a party, not a nature trip. If you want the river quiet, go midweek or in September. The scenery is the same and the soundtrack is entirely different.

Westons Beach on River St in Fryeburg (4.6 from 141 reviews) is the easiest place to see this part of the river without committing to a float — a sand beach on the bank with road access.

Why a New England river has sand beaches

This is the part that gets left out of every listing, and it is the whole explanation for the Saco's character.

Most Maine rivers run over bedrock and cobble because the glaciers scoured the state down to granite. The Saco valley around Fryeburg is different: as the last ice sheet retreated, meltwater dumped enormous volumes of sand and gravel into this basin, building a flat, deep outwash plain. The river has been rearranging that deposit ever since. It has no rock to cut through, so instead it wanders — cutting new channels, abandoning old ones, and moving sand from the outside of one bend to the inside of the next.

You can read the history of that wandering in the landscape. The Historic Hemlock Covered Bridge in East Fryeburg (4.7 from 170 reviews) crosses what is now an old, cut-off channel rather than the main river, because the Saco moved after the bridge was built. It is a nine-mile drive from Fryeburg village, free to visit, and the single best illustration of what this river does. Our guide to Maine's historic bridges covers others in the same family.

The river's other end: mills and a jetty

Where the Saco reaches the coast it did the opposite kind of work. The falls at Saco and Biddeford powered one of the largest textile complexes in New England, and the brick mill blocks on both banks — now apartments, restaurants and offices — exist because of the head of water the river provided. That industrial past is why these are cities rather than beach villages, and why the downtowns feel nothing like the coastal towns fifteen minutes north.

The mouth of the river carries a harder lesson. In the nineteenth century a long stone jetty was built out from Camp Ellis to keep the navigation channel clear. It worked, and it also interrupted the natural southward drift of sand along the shore. Camp Ellis Beach has been eroding ever since — houses lost, seawalls built, engineering studies stacked up over decades. It is one of the most-studied coastal erosion sites in the Northeast, and standing there and looking at the jetty tells you more about how coasts work than any interpretive sign.

What else is on the river

Real, well-reviewed places at both ends of the Saco:

• Westons Beach, River St, Fryeburg — 4.6 from 141 reviews. River beach on the sandy upper stretch.
• Historic Hemlock Covered Bridge, East Fryeburg — 4.7 from 170 reviews. Over an abandoned channel of the Saco.
• 302 West Restaurant & Tavern, 636 Main St, Fryeburg — 4.6 from 1,467 reviews, the default post-float meal in the upper valley.
• Huot's Seafood Restaurant, 29 Eastern Ave, Camp Ellis Beach, Saco — 4.3 from 1,038 reviews, at the river mouth beside the jetty.
• Broad Reach Adventures, 5 Bay Ave, Saco — 5.0 from 377 reviews. Charters out of the Camp Ellis basin.
• Ferry Beach State Park, 95 Bayview Rd, Saco — 4.7 from 757 reviews. The beach just north of the river mouth, with a boardwalk through a tupelo swamp behind the dunes. See the Ferry Beach guide.
• Rapid Ray's, 189 Main St, Saco — 4.6 from 1,035 reviews, a block from the mill falls.

More at things to do in Saco, and for the beach town next door, Old Orchard Beach.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the best place to tube the Saco River?

The stretch from Swans Falls in Fryeburg downstream through Brownfield toward Hiram is the classic run — slow current, sandy bottom and beaches on nearly every bend. Outfitters in those towns rent tubes and boats and run shuttles, which is the practical way to do a one-way float without leaving two cars.

How long does it take to float the Saco River?

Longer than the distance suggests, because the current in the sandy section is slow. Plan on four to five hours for a stretch that looks like a two-hour paddle, and more in low water. Take more water and sunscreen than feels necessary — there is very little shade on the river and no way to shorten the trip once you have started.

Can you camp on the Saco River sandbars?

Sandbar camping is a long tradition here, but it is regulated, and the rules differ by town and have tightened over the years in response to crowding and litter. Some sections restrict camping, alcohol or glass entirely. Check current regulations with the relevant town office or your outfitter before planning an overnight rather than assuming the tradition still applies everywhere.

Where does the Saco River start and end?

It rises at Saco Lake in Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, high in the White Mountains, and runs roughly 135 miles southeast through both states before entering the Atlantic at Camp Ellis in Saco, Maine. Along the way it changes from a fast mountain stream to a slow sand-bottomed river to a dammed industrial waterway.