Things to Do in Cape Elizabeth, Maine: A Headland Built for Walking

Crescent Beach State Park

Crescent Beach State Park is built around a genuine mile-long crescent of sand, and it functions as the starting line for the town's biggest annual event as well as a real day-use beach in its own right. Visitors come for swimming, beachcombing, fishing, and sea kayaking in the warmer months, and the park stays active in winter too, with cross-country skiing on its trails and open ground. One rule worth knowing before you bring a dog: dogs are prohibited on the beach itself from April 1 through September 30, so plan accordingly if a pet is coming along.

This is a different Crescent Beach from the one some visitors may know from Wells, Maine, further down the coast — Cape Elizabeth's Crescent Beach State Park is its own, separate property, and it is the literal starting point of the Beach to Beacon 10K course described below.

Two Lights State Park

Two Lights State Park opened in 1961 and covers 41 acres of headland, with nearly two miles of trails running through forest and out along seaside rock ledges, plus benches, restrooms, a playground, and picnic tables for a slower visit. It is named for, but does not actually contain, the lighthouse towers nearby (Cape Elizabeth Light, covered below) — the towers themselves sit just outside the park's own boundaries, a distinction worth knowing since many casual visitor accounts blur the two together.

Within the park, hikers can still find remnants of an unfinished World War II coastal-artillery bunker known as Battery Construction Number 201, designed for two 6-inch guns and never actually armed, along with a fire-control tower from the same military era. There is a lighter footnote tied to this same headland, too: Edward Hopper's 1929 painting of one of the nearby lighthouse towers appeared on a 1970 Maine statehood commemorative postage stamp. And there is a heavier one worth knowing, not as an attraction but as history: the USS Eagle 56 sank near this stretch of coast on April 23, 1945, and was confirmed in 2001 to have been torpedoed by the German submarine U-853 — one of the last U.S. Navy losses of World War II in home waters.

Fort Williams Park and Portland Head Light

Here is the fact worth stating plainly: Portland Head Light — one of the most photographed lighthouses in America — physically stands in the Town of Cape Elizabeth, not the City of Portland, at 1000 Shore Road inside Fort Williams Park. Construction began under a Massachusetts legislative appropriation in 1787 and finished with federal funding; the light was first lit on January 10, 1791, making it Maine's oldest lighthouse. It was automated and formally decommissioned as a Coast Guard-manned station on August 7, 1989. Today the U.S. Coast Guard maintains only the light and fog signal, while the Town of Cape Elizabeth owns and manages the grounds and the 1891-built former Keepers' Quarters, now a museum with a seasonal gift shop. The lighthouse's interior opens to the public only once a year, on Maine Open Lighthouse Day — worth planning around if going inside matters to you.

Fort Williams Park itself is 90 free acres surrounding the lighthouse, with tennis, pickleball, and basketball courts, baseball diamonds, a fitness course, and open walking areas. It is also the finish line of the Beach to Beacon 10K, described below, making it the natural third stop on the headland's core loop after Crescent Beach and Two Lights.

Cape Elizabeth Light: Two Lights' Twin Towers

The lighthouses that give Two Lights its name are Cape Elizabeth Light, a pair of towers built in 1873-1874 to replace earlier 1828 stone towers, each 67 feet tall and standing 129 feet above sea level. They were built as a pair, one fixed and one flashing, so ships at night could tell Cape Elizabeth apart from other coastal lights. Only the eastern tower remains an active aid to navigation today. The western tower was decommissioned in 1924, served as a fire-control tower for the Harbor Defenses of Portland during World War II, and was sold to retired film actor Gary Merrill in 1971; it was resold in 1983 and remains privately owned today, with no public access to the light station itself. Both towers are worth seeing from the outside, but only from outside — one is a working aid to navigation, the other someone's private home.

The Lobster Shack at Two Lights

The Lobster Shack at Two Lights, at 225 Two Lights Road, sits directly on the rocky shore near the Cape Elizabeth Light fog horn, and functions as a real, informal fourth stop on the same headland loop as the state park and the lighthouses — even though it sits on its own private parcel, adjacent to but not inside Two Lights State Park. It offers both oceanside picnic-table seating and an interior dining room with views out toward ships entering Portland Harbor. One Tripadvisor review is even titled to the effect of skip the park, head for the Lobster Shack — a good illustration of how tightly locals and visitors alike associate the restaurant with the park next door, even though the two are legally and physically separate. It runs on a seasonal schedule, so confirm current hours before making it the centerpiece of a visit.

The Beach to Beacon 10K

The Beach to Beacon 10K is the single event that physically ties this whole headland together, and the town's biggest annual community moment. Founded in 1998 by Olympic gold medalist and Cape Elizabeth native Joan Benoit Samuelson, the race starts at Crescent Beach State Park and finishes at Portland Head Light inside Fort Williams Park — literally running the same route described above. It began with just over 3,000 runners and has grown into one of the most competitive 10K road races in the United States, drawing 6,500 finishers in 2025 and over $90,000 in annual prize money, with course records of 27:26 for the men's field (Conner Mantz, 2025) and 30:41 for the women's field (Mary Keitany, 2017). Race-tied fundraising for Maine youth nonprofits frequently exceeds $100,000 a year. It runs every August, and if a visit lines up with race weekend, expect road closures and crowds along the whole course.

Cape Elizabeth Land Trust

Beyond the state parks, the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust protects 560 acres across 22 parcels around town, offering additional trail and open-space access for anyone who has covered the headland's core loop and wants more ground to walk. It is a real, currently active local conservation organization, smaller in scale than the state parks but a genuine extension of the same walkable, outdoors-first character.

Planning a Visit

The headland's core loop runs in the same order as the Beach to Beacon course itself: start at Crescent Beach State Park for the beach and the mile-long crescent of sand, continue to Two Lights State Park for the headland trails and the twin towers of Cape Elizabeth Light just outside its boundary, then finish at Fort Williams Park for Portland Head Light and the surrounding 90 acres of free park land. The Lobster Shack at Two Lights makes a natural stop along the way for anyone treating the loop as a half-day outing, and the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust's 560 acres are worth a look for visitors who want more trail beyond the three anchor parks. Because park hours, the Lobster Shack's seasonal schedule, and the once-a-year Maine Open Lighthouse Day date all change year to year, confirm specifics directly before building a trip around any one of them.