It would be difficult I think, to visit coastal Maine and not visit Acadia National Park. Our first full day in Maine was forecast to be good weather, so that became the plan and off we went.
Our inn was between Camden and Rockland, so we had about an hour's drive back up the coast to get to the park. We stopped at the small Thompson Island Information Center to get our passes, and quizzed the ranger there on good walking trails, not too steep, please. We decided to bypass the main visitor center (we are not see-the-movie-first types) and continued on into the park.
Acadia is located mainly on Mt. Desert Island, which is the area of the park we were visiting. Despite the name, it is most certainly not desert-like.
The island was named Isles des Monts Desert by Samuel Champlain in 1604 and means island of barren mountains, which it does have in abundance. This one is called the Beehive.
Taking the ranger's advice, we avoided Bar Harbor (we would have at any rate), and drove south on the Park Loop Rd, stopping for photos when something of interest showed itself. We could see the ferry at one stop, and Beaver Dam Pond was peaceful and pretty in the morning light.
The walk she had suggested started at the parking lot near Sand Beach, the only such in the park according to the literature.
After leaving the beach, the trail led back up and ran parallel to the road and right next to it, so we took every opportunity to leave the main trail and walk out on the rocks along the coastline.
There were others doing the same, it really was a much nicer place to be than right next to the road. You could almost think at times that you were alone rather than in a crowded national park. At intervals the rocks would drop away steeply, and the only safe way around was to return to the trail for a bit.
We spent a lot of time exploring the rocks, and I taking photos, so it took us a long time to get even halfway down the trail.
At that point, there was a parking lot and huge amounts of people and traffic, as there was a spot called Thunder Hole. There is an inlet here, with a small cavern where the waves come into the rocks, the water shoots up, and stairs going down for people to see it close up.
It was too crowded for us, so we retraced our steps and went back to the car, driving on and finding another spot to explore farther south at Otter Point and Otter Cove.
We saw loons there, which is always exciting, but I had (again!) forgotten to charge the camera battery the night before, and it had died earlier, even before we reached Thunder Hole. Sigh...
I did get pics of some eider ducks before it quit on me.
It was mid-afternoon by this time, but still there was time to drive up Cadillac Mountain to see the view from the top. Again, lots of cars and buses, but the view was magnificent and worth the drive. Plenty of viewing spots along the way up to see other smaller mountains to the west.
And sometime on our walk, we saw these small rock sculptures that someone took the time to make. I was intrigued, since I had seen these same type of rock piles on Mackinac Island earlier in the month.
