Maine's Crown Jewel--Acadia National Park

We definitely got the timing right by switching to Quebec from Acadia NP last week.  After leaving Quebec, the clouds were building but no rain.

Name of the Highway in Canada

A very interesting mailbox on the road

The only Moose we saw....

The drive is a long one so we stopped for the night in Skowhegan, ME at a SuperWalmart and we always jokingly say that we pay for our overnight RV parking at Walmart by expensive grocery and shopping trips!  Nearby, we found a Chinese restaurant and got a very heavy bag containing pork fried rice and shrimp sweet and sour.  The shrimp were huge and fried in so much batter they appeared to be donuts!  As a bonus, they threw in a large container of honey-based sweet and sour sauce that was very good.

The  next morning we drove through Bangor, ME and saw a freeway sign "USS Maine Memorial" that piqued our interest.  We turned off and found a park with a large concrete ship bow with the actual Union plate and gold decorations from the bow of the Maine, the ship that sunk in Havana Harbor in 1898, setting off the Spanish-American War.  The ship, of course, was named after the state of Maine and had a number of Mainers in the crew.  The other unusual monument in Bangor was a huge statue of Paul Bunyan, the lumberjack. The timber and lumber industries are still important economically in Maine.

Moving along towards Acadia National Park, we spent the night in a nice friendly campground near Ellsworth, the gateway town to Acadia. 

There is a great Civil War monument in Ellsworth, complete with a pyramid of cannonballs.  The State of Maine contributed a great number of soldiers to the Union Civil War effort and nearly every town has a memorial. 

Crossing the bridge and driving onto Mount Desert Island, you eventually arrive at the Acadia National Park Hulls Cove Visitor Center, which has an excellent orientation film, camping information and many exhibits. The 27 mile two lane Park Loop Road starts after the Visitor Center and takes you around all the "fingers or lobster claws" of land surrounded by lakes and bays that is Mount Desert Island.

A couple of miles down the road is the first and largest town, Bar Harbor--pronounced by Mainers---Bah Hah-bah!!  Bar Harbor is quite touristy but also a beautiful little seaside town with a very active working harbor and a large number of seafood restaurants, galleries, shops and many beautiful homes overlooking the water.  Bar Harbor was first settled in 1796, so lots of history here too! This is a great place to get your obligatory lobster roll lunch!

Acadia National Park is comprised of many small fishing villages and the road takes you to most of them.  A big highlight for most visitors is Cadillac Mountain, which at the top is 1530 feet high, with a terrific panoramic view of the entire park.  The exposed granite of the mountain is very scenic with many fractures that have a small wildflower display.  There are 45 miles of packed gravel carriage roads on Cadillac Mountain for hiking, biking or equestrian use.  On our previous trip to Acadia, several years ago, we were part of a group and took a sunset carriage ride around the mountain which was very scenic.

In the early 1800s most settlers here were fishermen, lumbermen, farmers or shipbuilders.  Tourism began in the mid 1800s. In 1880, Bar Harbor had 30 hotels and was a well known summer resort.  Soon that attracted wealthy families like Rockefellers, Morgans, Fords, Astors, Vanderbilts and Pulitzers, who all built palatial "cottages" to live in for the summer and entertain their guests. At the turn of the 20th Century, there was concern for overdevelopment so a land trust was established to buy and preserve land.   In 1916 the trust's 5000 acres of land became a National Monument then in 1919, it became the first Eastern National Park.  John D. Rockefeller Jr. soon donated over 10,000 acres of parkland and built the 45 miles of carriage roads and stone bridges. In 1913 Rockefeller also built some of the first automobile roads in the park.  In 1947 a large out of control fire burned over 17,000 acres including 10,000 acres of parkland in 10 days.  The fire consumed 60 of the grand summer cottages in Bar Harbor and few remain today other than those converted to B&Bs.

We drove from Cadillac Mountain down to Seal Harbor, over to Northeast Harbor, up to Somesville, passing the beautiful pedestrian bridge in the photograph next to the Mount Desert Island Museum.

Somes Sound is a fjord carved by glaciers in the past, and apparently the only fjord in the lower 48 states!  Then down to Southwest Harbor, stopping to stroll around all these small fishing and lobstering villages.  There are only 2 campgrounds in Acadia and we stopped at Seawall Campground and found that there was plenty of room.  All dry camping of course with no utilities, but nice and quiet. This western part of the island is called the "quiet side" as it doesn't get as much tourism or have as much congestion as the east side.

The next morning we drove around the corner to Bass Harbor and the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. The light was built in 1858 and is now automated.

From Bass Harbor, one drives almost north passing several  good sized lakes and Pretty Marsh. It began raining and we never found the marsh and the area wasn't very pretty!
Continuing north, you connect to Maine route 102 and back over the bridge to Ellsworth.   Part of Isle au Haut, an offshore island, is part of the Park and accessible by ferry and another Park unit is accessible by road on the Schoodic Peninsula.  In addition, Great Cranberry and Little Cranberry Island (not in the Park) are accessible to visitors by ferry from either Southeast or Northeast Harbors.

Tremont Congregational Church 18186

Lobster pots and boats

Ship's funnel Mailbox

A real fixer upper!

Beautiful Victorian House, Thomaston

Typical Lobster boat

We enjoyed the rugged coastline scenery in Acadia and admired the people who live here year round as the winters can be difficult with Atlantic storms coming in regularly.  Acadia is a very different type of National Park than we are familiar with in our big iconic Western parks like Grand Canyon, Yosemite or Yellowstone with little private development, other than concessionaires' facilities.  But that difference is why we have a Acadia park today since a good portion of the parkland was donated by private citizens and even facilities like roads built privately--definitely a different concept!!!  Acadia is well worth visiting for a couple days or more to soak in the salt air and quaint fishing villages!