Camp Ellis Shuts Down One Piece at a Time. The Dog-Beach Weeks Fall in Between.

The City of Saco has already posted the order in which Camp Ellis closes for winter. The bathrooms at Camp Ellis Pier and Bayview Beach were scheduled to close on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Public Works will pull the downriver floats on Oct. 26 and 27 and the upriver floats on Nov. 9 and 10. The Camp Ellis Boat Launch stays open until its seasonal closure in early November.

Something opened on Oct. 1, too. From then through March 31, dogs may run off leash on Saco's beaches as long as they're under voice and sight control. Put those two calendars side by side and you get a narrow window. Right now, the beach is open to dogs, the floats are still in the river, the launch still works, and a new food truck is parked at the pier on weekend mornings. That overlap runs out in stages between now and Nov. 10.

The calendar from here

Here are the City's published dates, in order, for a reader looking at them this Thursday:

1. Already in place: dogs off leash on Saco's beaches, Oct. 1 through March 31.
2. Already done: the Camp Ellis Pier and Bayview Beach bathrooms were set to close Oct. 13. The City noted that date could change with conditions.
3. This month: a new crosswalk at the end of Harbor Drive across Ferry Road, installed with one-way alternating traffic and flaggers while crews work.
4. Oct. 26–27: downriver floats come out. The City calls this an annual pre-winter job that keeps winter storms from wearing on floats left in the water.
5. Early November: the Camp Ellis Boat Launch closes for the season.
6. Nov. 9–10: upriver floats come out.

Apart from the crosswalk, the first item is the only one that adds something, and it's the one that lasts all winter.

What the beach looks like with the rules flipped

Dogs must still be leashed getting into and out of vehicles at the beach. Past that, Camp Ellis Beach and Bayview Beach follow the city's off-season rule.

That rule is more generous than the one next door. Ferry Beach State Park allows dogs on its beaches from October through March, but on a leash. So you can walk both sides of the same stretch of Saco Bay on the same morning under two different rules. Clip the leash back on where the city beach meets the state park.

A few comforts are gone already. A nor'easter got the beach accessibility mats at Bayview Beach and Camp Ellis Beach pulled early, and the City says they'll go back in spring. With the pier bathrooms closed too, plan a Camp Ellis morning around the places that are still open. That list is short and specific.

The weekend-morning loop that starts at the pier

The newest stop is a 1968 GMC carpet van. Emma Lou's Bakery opened at Camp Ellis on Sept. 14. Owners Eddie and Hali turned the van into a custom commercial kitchen and serve homemade baked goods, including fresh cinnamon rolls, breakfast sandwiches and coffee. "We have been visiting Saco and Camp Ellis all of our lives and it felt like the best possible location to launch our truck," Halie said in the City of Saco's opening announcement. The City lists the truck at Camp Ellis Pier on weekend mornings. It also says the truck turns up at events around the area, and it sends people to the bakery's Facebook page and Instagram for where it's headed next. As the weather turns, check those pages before you drive down for a cinnamon roll.

The second stop has posted its season. Camp Ellis General Store lists its "Fall Hours 2026" as Friday and Saturday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. It cooks lobsters and makes lobster rolls until closing, and makes cold subs until an hour before closing. It also stocks Häagen-Dazs ice cream and novelties.

Getting there on foot or by bike is easier this year. The Ferry Road Intersection and Culvert Replacement Project was finished on July 2. It was funded in part by a Maine Department of Transportation grant of more than $1.2 million, and it added a multi-use path that the City says improves walking and biking access to Camp Ellis. The Harbor Drive crosswalk on this month's Public Works list sits on that same road. The City's traffic safety committee approved it at its Aug. 20 meeting.

With the path in place since July, a walk or ride down Ferry Road to the pier, breakfast from the van, and a stop at the General Store all now connect on one route.

The jetty walk now ends at a fence

The other change at the end of Ferry Road is in the water. On June 30, Mayor Jodi MacPhail joined Senators Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers leaders to announce the start of construction on the Corps' Section 111 project, known locally as the spur jetty. The $45 million project will build a 750-foot spur jetty perpendicular to the existing jetty, designed to change wave action and reduce coastal erosion. Completion is scheduled for August 2027.

You can still walk out on the old jetty, but only so far. The City says public access runs to a fence about 800 feet out on the stone, and it asks visitors not to go around the fencing or into the construction zone. When the City announced the reopened access in April, it named striper fishing as one of the things people come out on the rocks to do before the fence line. A small staging area also takes up part of the Camp Ellis Pier parking lot.

The contractor estimates about one month to build each 50-foot section of the spur. At that pace, 750 feet is a project measured in seasons. It's also the one part of Camp Ellis on a 2027 calendar instead of a pre-winter one. The bathrooms, floats and launch all wrap up before Thanksgiving, and the jetty work stays on schedule to finish in August 2027.

After November 10

Once the upriver floats are out on Nov. 9 and 10, the river side of Camp Ellis is put away for winter. The rest of Saco gets ready for winter that same week. Crews collect leaf bags left at the curb starting the week of Nov. 9, beginning at the beach and working toward North Saco. Sidewalk staking for the plow operators runs from October into early November.

Boaters lose their in-town ramp first. The Front Street Boat Launch has already closed for the season while construction continues at the wastewater treatment plant. That leaves the Camp Ellis Boat Launch until early November, or the Marblehead Boat Launch in Biddeford, for reaching the lower Saco River.

Ferry Beach State Park stays open on foot. Off-season visitors can park outside the gate and walk in. The fee is still collected year-round and the facilities are closed. Maine's southern-region foliage guide points to the park's trails for tupelo, or blackgum, trees, which usually peak in late September or early October. That's typical timing rather than a 2026 report, and late October usually falls after it. The leashed-dog beach and the walk-in access stay through March.

After Nov. 10, a Camp Ellis weekend comes down to whatever hours the General Store posts next, off-leash beach time through March 31, and an 800-foot walk out to the jetty fence.

The Cady Toussaint Team spends a lot of time filming Saco's coastline in every season, including mornings like these at the pier. If your Camp Ellis home has a story worth telling on video, from the walk down Ferry Road to the view toward the jetty, let's talk about how to show it. Sell With Us.