Jasper Beach
Jasper Beach
This post was originally published November 9, 2018.
Winding along the Downeast coast of Maine are rocky beaches and acres upon acres of blueberry fields. On my way to Machiasport, I passed through the wild blueberry capital of the world, ironically named Cherryfield. Despite the wild cherries that grow there, Cherryfield has good claim to its high blueberry status. Maine is responsible for over 90% of the nation’s blueberries, and Wyman’s blueberry manufacturing plant in Cherryfield is responsible for manufacturing a lot of them. Washington county, where Cherryfield and Machiasport are situated, is popularized by its massive wild blueberry farms, which were made possible by burrens formed by glaciers thousands of years ago.
Blueberry farms aren’t the only thing glaciers formed. They also pulled rocks all the way from the Appalachians down to Maine’s coast, and Jasper Beach is just one of the geographic curiosities they left behind. Named after the minuscule amount of jasper stone that can be found there, Jasper Beach is what the sea would look like if it were made of stones. Smooth, round rocks rest on the shore in motionless, towering tidal waves. The majority of the rocks fell from a nearby bluff and were dragged across the sea floor until they didn’t have an edge left on them.
I sat at the top of the tallest point and watched as groups of people came and went, collecting rocks for their crafts. Maybe it was just the windiness of the day, but I was enchanted by the rhythm of the waves crashing against the rocks. If the waves crash that forcefully every day, the stones didn’t stand a chance.
On a day plagued by blustery winds, I stood less of a chance than the rocks. While my skin numbed and my cheeks turned red, I tried to take in as much as I could. At first thought, visiting a beach to look at some rocks sounded like a silly idea, but the moment I got there and stood among millions of perfectly smooth stones, I found Jasper Beach to be nothing short of humbling. It’s an inlet carved and curated by time.
