A Maine haven for hawks, horses, and ATVs

From late September to early October, the mountain hosts a spectacular show. Thousands of migrating hawks, including peregrine falcons, bald eagles, osprey, and northern goshawks, rely on the coastline for navigation and take advantage of the mountain's thermal lift, making this one of Maine's most renowned hawk-watching sites. Optimal viewing is on cool, clear days with strong northwest breezes.

"It's wonderful to have all this so close," said Neil Jorgensen, a biologist, geologist, and author whose books include the "Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide to Southern New England." The Kittery resident said the auto route is popular with hikers but is steep. Much easier is a side road from Agamenticus Village. "It's well-marked. You fear you'll get lost but you never do. It feels like you're in the forest primeval."

Jorgensen's favorite hikes take him past an old cemetery and the stone walls and cellar holes of a long-gone farmhouse. Another trail crosses a granite quarry. At the summit, he said erosion has exposed a ledge that bears parallel lines scraped by a glacier 15,000 years ago as it moved northwest to southeast toward the sea. Rocks in the ice created the abrasions, he said, but on the south/southeast side of the mountain, as the ice melted, it pulled the rocks out, leaving a smoother surface. "It was something Henry David Thoreau observed during his time in Maine."

Agamenticus was also an early name for the York River and the nearby village. One interpretation is that it derives from an Algonquin word meaning "other side of the river," said Robin Stanley, conservation coordinator for the Mount Agamenticus Conservation Region.