BLOG 11—ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, MAINE

We left Bennington,Vermont on 4/27 and drove 2 days to Portland, Maine and stayed at the Portland Elks Lodge 3 nights to take a needed rest break, do some shopping, laundry, fuel and eat at Susan's Fish and Chips in Portland, where we went with our good friends Mike and Suzanne twice in the past. Their seafood is really good!  Another day, we finally had lobster rolls at Dock's, which was also great!

Then on Friday May 1 we were off for Ellsworth, Maine about 3-1/2 hours northeast. 

One highlight was coming to the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory  at Prospect, Maine and adjacent to Fort Knox State Historic Site, a granite U.S. Army Fort completed in 1864. We parked with a good view of the bridge after talking on the CB radio that the 2 Airstream trailers would cross to the middle of the bridge close together so we could get a photograph. Unfortunately they got separated but here are some of our photographs of the very beautiful bridge, its observation tower and the trailers crossing. This is the only Observatory Bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the tallest in the world at 420' high!

Top: Fishers in the back -Westerfields in front--Bottom:Just Westerfields

Then onward to Ellsworth, Maine and overnight at their Elks Lodge and a stop at the L.L. Bean outdoors store there.  On Saturday May 2 it was only a 30 minute drive to the Acadia NP Visitor Center!

We had visited Acadia National Park twice before, including last summer, but it's always interesting and our other two couples were anxious to go!  The first problem was many campgrounds in Maine were not yet open for the season and we thought the two National Park campgrounds were also closed.  It was a happy surprise to find that Blackwoods Campground in the Park had just opened the day before our arrival so we drove to the Visitor Center to see the park movie and exhibits.  The Visitor Center sits on a hill and there are a number of stone steps to climb from the parking area.

We went on to the campground to get settled for the night. A friendly ranger checked us in and all of us using our Golden Age Passports we paid only half price, $15. Camping in the very quiet forest was excellent—no hookups but our solar system worked great, as usual.

We all went our separate ways for the day and explored different areas of the Park. We took the 27 mile Park Loop Road and went to Seal Harbor and then Northeast Harbor Marina, where we had lunch. 

We had major entertainment during lunch when a good sized fishing boat was being hauled out of the water on the boat launch ramp by a huge semi and long boat transport trailer. The boat powered up close to the launch ramp and the trailer was detached from the semi and a large wire rope unspooled to allow the trailer to go under water about 50' out and the boat to drive on while the semi stayed dry on the ramp!  As soon as the boat was in position, the trailer was pulled back up by a winch on the semi winding up the wire rope and then reattaching to the semi. Then the whole rig moved up to a level spot to secure the boat and move out to the highway!  Hadn't seen that before—six photographs tell the story!

Acadia, like most of coastal Maine is a series of coves, bays, mountains and peninsulas jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean.  Glaciers made a lot of the amazing landscape, probably most evident on Cadillac Mountain, the highest point of the Park at 1530' and also the highest point on the Atlantic coast.  Water is everywhere—fresh water lakes and ponds and many areas with the surrounding ocean. There are a number of small lobster fishing villages and scenic piles of lobster traps are frequent!  

Northeast Harbor is a pretty place with a commercial fishboat dock and frequent unloading of fish and lobster.  Boats are constantly in and out of the harbor.  We saw a new variation of lobster boat that has no transom, scary to me, but apparently useful for hauling in and dropping the lobster traps and perhaps fish nets too.

Now a little Park history.  In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazano (yep, same guy as the NYC bridge) gave the area the name L'Acadie or Acadia.  Samuel de Champlain in 1604 gave the island its name, l'Isles des Monts-deserts or what is today called Mount Desert Island. The largest town, Bar Harbor, incorporated in 1796!  Tourism began in the 1850s and by 1880 Bar Harbor was a summer resort town with 30 hotels!  Around that same time the well known society families like Astors, Vanderbilts, Fords, Rockefellers, Morgans and Pulitzers began building huge summer cottages.  These wealthy summer people eventually collaborated to help preserve the beauty of Mount Desert Island by forming a land trust buying the most scenic areas and donating them to the Park as it formed.  In 1916 the property was named a National Monument and in 1919 became a National Park, the first in the East!  John D. Rockefeller Jr. alone donated over 10,000 acres of land to the Park! 

There is an amazing amount of fine stone work with steps, culverts, a beautiful stone gatehouse, 17 stone bridges and culverts for the 45 mile system of Carriage Roads that John D. Rockefeller Jr. had built in 1913 and later gave to the Park. 

On this visit to Acadia, we wanted to focus on areas we hadn't spent time before, so our next visit was to Jordan Pond.  The Pond House, during the summer full of people eating popovers and tea, their specialty since the mid-1880’s  was deserted so we drove to the Pond itself which is a very beautiful large lake with walking trails and nearby two similar large hills called the “Bubbles” with a U-shaped valley between containing Bubble Pond.

Moving along the Loop Road, our next stop was to the top of Cadillac Mountain, which is a highlight of any visit.  The road up to the Summit opened in 1931 with 800 automobiles bringing 3000 people for Opening Day!  The views are spectacular both from the road and the summit parking areas and trails!  Cadillac Mountain has a spectacular pink granite in many places coming from pink feldspar in the granite rock.  In spring, there are numerous waterfalls near the road.  

Here are photographs  of views from Cadillac Mountain, one showing the town of Bar Harbor and Bar Island just offshore.Another shows the many islands offshore, many of which are protected by the Park.  Also photographs of the amazing rock formations carved by glaciers and wind and rain over the centuries. And granite, always more granite on the mountain! 

Continuing on, we passed an interesting area of birch trees nicely lighted. 

Egg Rock Lighthouse and National Wildlife Refuge are just offshore.    

We walked around on Sand Beach, which on this sunny April day was quite popular!  Some kids were building a sand castle and many large rocks in the tidal zone were covered in kelp. In the summer this beach is so crowded that parking lots are completely full! Tiny streams of water were creating meandering trails in the sand while heading to the ocean. 

Last stop was Otter Cove, where they think Samuel Champlain repaired his vessel after hitting a rock just offshore, now called the Spindle, with a bell buoy to warn you off! 

Our last shot was of trees and reflections.

Acadia is a wonderful Park to visit, and even if you only have a day, you can catch many of the most interesting areas.   We now have some ideas of other new places to go on our next visit to Acadia National Park!