Desert of Maine

Maine's Famous Natural Phenomenon for an Unforgettable Journey

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Called the Desert of Maine, it is not really a desert at all — but it sure looks like one. Nature laid it down, human error uncovered it, and the hucksters and gawkers arrived late in the game.

When you hear the words "American desert", your mind will most likely snap to the Mojave or even the Sonoran, two of the driest, sandiest places in the Southwest. But would you believe there exists a desert in the middle of the Northeast's lush pine forests? Well, there does. Sort of.

Desert of Maine, Freeport: See 169 reviews, articles, and 71 photos of Desert of Maine, ranked No.7 on TripAdvisor among 18 attractions in Freeport.

Maine evokes images of lush pine forests and quintessential New England lighthouses, but tucked away next to the coastal town of Freeport, Maine, lies an unexpected site: over 40-acres of sand and silt, dubbed the Desert of Maine. The rolling sand dunes aren't a true desert–the area gets too much precipitation to fall under that category—but it's not a kitschy attraction created from trucked-in sand. The desert, which does attract around 30,000 tourists each year, is a story of ancient geology meets modern-day land misuse.

The Desert of Maine is a 40-acre (160,000 m2) tract of exposed glacial silt (a sand-like substance, but finer-grained than sand) surrounded by a pine forest near the town of Freeport, Maine, in the United States. The Desert of Maine is not a true desert, as it receives an abundance of precipitation, and the surrounding vegetation is being allowed to encroach on the barren dunes.