Winslow Park in Freeport is the town's own piece of saltwater: a wooded point at the mouth of the Harraseeket River with a campground, a boat launch and a small tidal beach looking out into Casco Bay. It rates 4.6 from 604 Google reviews, generous for a place whose beach spends half of every day underwater and the other half under mud. Time it right and it is one of the best cheap afternoons on this coast.
The short version
Winslow Memorial Park sits at 10 Winslow Park Way, off Staples Point Road in South Freeport, twenty minutes north of Portland and five minutes from the Main Street outlets. It is run by the Town of Freeport, not the state, so it does not appear on state park maps and the rules and fees are the town's own. A day-use entrance fee applies to non-residents, collected at the gatehouse in season; current rates and season dates live on the town's park page.
You get a grass-and-pine picnic area stepping down to the shore, covered shelters, a playground, restrooms, a boat launch and a shoreline path around the point. You do not get lifeguards, a snack bar, or a beach that behaves like one at every state of the tide.
Tides decide your visit
This is the one thing to plan around. Casco Bay runs a tidal range of roughly nine to eleven feet, and Winslow Park's beach is a shallow flat at the mouth of a tidal river. Near high water there is a real swimming beach — sand and pea gravel, water deep enough to swim within a few steps. Two hours either side of low water there is no swimming beach at all: an apron of mud, rockweed and cobble, with the sea a hundred yards out and ankle-deep when you reach it.
Check a Portland tide table before you leave and arrive within about two hours of high tide. Nobody tells you this at the gate, and it is the most common reason visitors leave disappointed. The flats do reward a look — crabs, mussel beds, clam holes squirting — so low tide is a good beachcombing trip and a bad swimming trip. The water is cold either way, though the flats warm the incoming tide enough to beat the open ocean south of Portland.
Camping
The campground is why many people know the park. Sites spread through the woods and along the shore, and the waterfront ones — open the tent flap, see Casco Bay — book out first. Reservations run through the Town of Freeport rather than a state or national system, and peak-summer waterfront sites go months ahead. Tent and RV sites both exist, but they are not enormous and this is a town park, not a resort: expect neighbors close by on a July Saturday. For alternatives within an hour, see our roundup of camping near Portland.
The stone tower across the water
Look up the harbor toward South Freeport village and you may pick out a squat granite tower above the trees. That is all that is left of Casco Castle.
In 1903 Amos Gerald — a Fairfield businessman known around the state as the Electric Railroad King for the trolley lines he financed — put up a grand summer hotel on the shore at South Freeport, deliberately at the end of one of his electric railway lines. The logic was circular and shameless: build a destination, then charge people to ride your trolley to it. The hotel was a wooden pile with a mock-medieval stone tower attached, and for about a decade it worked. In 1914 it burned. The tower did not, and it has stood there since on private land, visible from the water and a few angles onshore — all that survives of Maine's short-lived trolley-resort era. Before the moorings and lobster boats, the Harraseeket was a shipbuilding river and South Freeport a yard village: a working port long before it was a nice view.
What else is close
- Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster Company (4.4, 1,752 reviews) — the working-wharf lobster shack at the town landing, a mile and a half around the cove. Order at the window, eat at a picnic table.
- Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park (4.8, 1,431 reviews) — two miles away and the highest-rated outdoor spot in Freeport. Easy shoreline trails, big white pines, an osprey island offshore.
- Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment (4.7, 259 reviews) — a working coastal farm three miles out the peninsula, with trails, a café and animals kids can get near.
- South Freeport Village Market (4.5, 77 reviews) — the village store up the road; sandwiches and ice for the cooler.
- Desert of Maine (4.5, 1,145 reviews) — four miles inland, an exposed glacial sand deposit a farming family turned into a roadside attraction. More in our guide to the Desert of Maine.
The rest of Freeport is within ten minutes: the L.L. Bean flagship, Bradbury Mountain State Park inland for a short summit hike, and our Freeport town guide to put it in order.
Frequently asked questions
Can you swim at Winslow Park in Freeport?
Yes, but only near high tide. The beach is a shallow tidal flat, so at low water the swimming area drains to mud and rockweed and the sea is a long walk out. Check a Portland tide table and aim to arrive within about two hours of high water.
Do you have to pay to get into Winslow Park?
A day-use entrance fee applies to non-residents in season, collected at the gatehouse; Freeport residents pay differently. The town posts current rates and season dates on its Winslow Park page.
How far is Winslow Park from Portland?
About twenty miles, or twenty to thirty minutes up I-295 depending on summer traffic. Close enough for a Portland afternoon, far enough that you should check the tide before committing.
Is Winslow Park good for young children?
One of the better options on this coast for small kids: the water is shallow, sheltered and slightly warmer than the open ocean, with a playground and grass for when they are done. The flats at low tide make a decent crab hunt. Nothing is lifeguarded, so supervision is on you.
