Where the Merrimack meets the ocean and Beef Country hits the border.
Salisbury Beach is the last stretch of Massachusetts sand before New Hampshire.
In Newbury, the Parker River winds through salt hay and into the Great Marsh. The refuge road on Plum Island runs south to Sandy Point, which looks across the water to Crane Beach in Ipswich.
North in Newburyport, shipyards gave way to a brick downtown and a working waterfront. The city calls itself the birthplace of the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Custom House Maritime Museum on the riverwalk makes the case.
Rowley and Amesbury slow the pace. Rowley still sells antiques out of old barns, and Amesbury’s mills on the Powwow River now hold taprooms and studios.
Up here, Route 1 is the Beef road. It’s the Newburyport Turnpike in Rowley and Lafayette Road in Salisbury, and there are Beef shops along both.
Around the region
Salisbury finishes the coast loud and bright, with arcades and fried dough along the beach strip and Salisbury Beach State Reservation at the south end for camping and fishing.
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