Pigeon Cove is the quiet fishing and quarrying end of Rockport, on the north-eastern tip of Cape Ann, and it is made of granite. The rock here was cut for over a century, and blocks from the Cape Ann quarries were shipped to build streets, bridges and monuments in cities up and down the Atlantic coast. The big, flooded quarries are still here, among them the one at Halibut Point State Park, a deep pit filled with clear green water, with a rocky shore beyond where the ocean breaks on shelves of grey stone.
From the top of the old quarry's rim at Halibut Point, on a clear day, you can see across the water to the Isles of Shoals, and sometimes as far as the hills of southern Maine. The tide pools below are full of life, with barnacles, periwinkles and starfish, and the cold water is thick with seabirds in winter, including eiders, scoters and gannets. A stone tower, left over from the Second World War, stands on the rise, and the whole place has a rough, sea-battered quality that is exactly what a granite cape should have.
Rockport has a nice piece of history that is easy to miss. In 1856, a group of local women, fed up with the drunkenness that was ruining their families, marched into the town's bars with hatchets and smashed the barrels, and the town was dry for generations afterward. The tradition lasted long enough that it was only in the early twenty-first century that restaurants could serve alcohol. The town also has a famous red fishing shack, painted by so many artists that it is known as Motif Number One.
The road, Route 127 and Granite Street, runs along the coast through woods and past old houses, with bends and slight rises and views of the open sea between the trees. It is an easy, pleasant ride that demands little but rewards a slow pace, and it is a hard place to find parking in summer. The tarmac is mostly sound, with some patches. Rockport, two and a half kilometres away, has restaurants, fudge shops and galleries, and the nearest fuel is there or in Gloucester, eight kilometres away. Autumn is much quieter than summer, and a clear, cold day in October is perfect.