Amazement and wonder.

Set foot on Jasper Beach for the first time, and you'll understand. All it takes is one look at this half-mile stretch of beach that's completely covered with what has to be billions upon billions of volcanic rocks piled high above the water line.

You'll also be amazed at how few people there are there.

Jasper Beach is in the beautiful town of Machiasport, located within Harbor Cove, right below the site of the old Bucks Harbor Radar station with it's long abandoned military housing which is rotting away at the base of the hill.

The road to Jasper Beach which is called the Port Road is a challenge filled with hilly terrain, plenty of curves, and 18-wheelers filled with lobster and blueberries.  The advice of the day is to take it very slow and enjoy the sights.

Take a right at the sign onto Jasper Beach Road and you'll then find a gravel parking area with the beach in the foreground.  It's a nice little park area and there is no charge to be there.

While we're thinking of it the name of the beach is Jasper Beach, not Jasper's Beach.  Reason being is that the beach is covered with volcanic rocks that contain an abundance of iron that give the beach a somewhat reddish look like the gemstone Jasper.

The locals will tell you that sometimes when the tide is just right an eerie and distant singing sound can be heard as the waves hit the rocks.  Could it be that Mother Nature is content and trying to tell us something?

The beach is beautiful and really what Maine is all about, and well worth a road trip on a Sunday, or any day for that matter. Find it about 95 miles away from Bangor.

Jasper Beach, Machiasport, Maine

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Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

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Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

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