Rocky upstage

Points can be sylvan and dainty, smooth traceries of land at the edge of a tranquil bay. Or they can be high points, literally and figuratively; promontories that overlook the glowering sea.

Halibut Point State Park Location: Gott Avenue off Route 27, Rockport (almost on the Gloucester line), Cape Ann. Phone: 978-546-2997.

North of Boston, Halibut Point in Rockport looks almost too good to be true: great piles of smooth and jagged granite collected on a headland soaring above the Atlantic. You are alone on a rocky raft in a realm of ocean and sky. On a clear day, you can see Plum Island, and even the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine. On rainy days, you can't see a thing but swirling water and foam splashed on slick rocks (be careful, especially if wearing sneakers or sandals), but the atmosphere is wildly romantic.

Halibut Point, which is a state park, offers naturalist-led bird walks. An adjacent property, also open to the public, belongs to the Trustees of Reservations.

Published in the Boston Globe Calendar's 1999 Wandering New England issue.