Choosing A Date

Help Beacon with its "Paint the Base" preservation project this year!

While we work to restore Goose Rocks and raise funds for repainting, our keeper's experiences are "camper style" ; we provide the fresh water for drinking, propane Weber grill for cooking, ice for the the cooler (along with two mini-fridges to keep your food cold) and down comforters for warmth. Goose Rocks DOES have a composting toilet, but does not have hot-and-cold running water (yet). If you're up for a "glamping" experience, enjoy Goose Rocks' four comfortable and well-furnished upper level rooms and three catwalk decks.

Because we have to haul all fresh water and propane up to the lighthouse, we encourage conservation of water and fuel. Hand-washing and dishwashing are done with ocean water you haul up by rope in buckets (yes, it's part of the authentic keeper experience). The lower-level Keep is used for storage during restoration, but that's where you'll find the private bathroom and a kitchen area featuring a full-sized table for indoor eating or playing board games.

Your boat transportation from North Haven ferry to the lighthouse and overnight visit at Goose Rocks is a thank-you for for two donor-guests, but additional guests are permitted with prior permission with a maximum of six visitors, as laundry, propane, and water consumption go up dramatically with each guest. Please add $100 for each additional guest beyond two, but also enjoy a $50 credit for bringing your own bed linens (queen sized sheets and pillowcases and/or sleeping bags and pillow cases) for your beds! See the overview of various months to decide when YOU might like to visit:

MAY: May visits are often, by necessity, based on "short-notice" arrangement. May is a month which is often cold, and weather and sea conditions will dictate our ability to safely transport visitors to Goose Rocks. If you want to visit in May, please be flexible with your dates or willing to book last-minute as conditions allow; please note that the Memorial Day weekend (Saturday through Monday) is a premium weekend.

JUNE: June can be one of the brightest or wettest months of spring, sunny in the afternoons but sometimes cold at night and foggy in the mornings. This is often considered the "renter's season" on North Haven, with restaurants opening to their full summer schedule and a fresh season of social and cultural events offered at Waterman's Community Center on North Haven. This is a great month, if you can roll with the changing weather or enjoy smaller crowds, to make Goose Rocks a unique vacation destination --or even "side diversion"—during a visit to Midcoast Maine.

JULY: July features a full complement of North Haven's longtime summer crowd. Rockland's Blues Festival and other local events make for lively crowds. In North Haven, three restaurants and a deli stay busy with the expanded population, and Waterman's offers daily activities for children while featuring a theatrical, musical, or cultural event almost every evening. The Farmer's Market can be found at the ball field every Saturday morning, and a reservation is usually required to ensure your car gets on a specific ferry. The weather is typically in the 70s and 80s, with long sunny days, cool evenings, and brilliant sunsets.

AUGUST: August is the most popular month for vacationing in Maine. The weather is at its best: sunny and clear, with most days in the 80s or 90s and evenings balmy and mild. Rockland's Lobster Festival and Jazz Festival, and the onslaught of travelers and tourists to the Penobscot Bay region can make accommodation on the mainland nearly impossible, so this is an ideal time to enjoy an extended visit to Goose Rocks, or use it as an overnight stop if sailing or boating through the Fox Island Thoroughfare to the Acadia region. The sunrises and sunsets as viewed from Goose Rocks are absolutely amazing, and stargazing (especially watching meteor showers!) is highly rated by previous keepers.

SEPTEMBER: September can be a really gorgeous time of year; the crowds have died down but the parade of sailboats and windjammers is still in full effect in the Thorofare. Cooler mornings and evenings give way to bright sunny days in the 70s, but the water is often still warm enough for a swim. The sunsets are still rosey, and moon- and star-gazing is often at its best this time of year.

OCTOBER: Like May, October can be a tempermental month for weather, with nor'easter winds and even hurricanes possible as climate cools. Still, it is an extremely mild and beautiful time of year to enjoy the changing seasons, colorful foliage, and fading light, so for the adventurous who enjoy solitude we try to accommodate flexible visitors as long as weather and sea conditions permit. The broad scarlet sunsets are some of the most colorful of the year. Stays beyond the third week of October are discouraged due to quickly-changing conditions.

See our "Frequently Asked Questions" for all the details about getting to Goose Rocks and how Beacon supporters are able to avail themselves of a Goose Rocks visit.