Acadia National Park is the first national park established east of the Mississippi. It is actually located on an island!! You can travel the park by car, bike, or take the free propane powered buses.
The park is predominantly located on the Eastern side of Mt. Desert Island. There are three major portions of the park: 1 - Park loop road (See the yellow path on Eastern side) and 2 - The Carriage Roads, a gift of John D. Rockefeller (See the red path west of the Park Loop Road (west of the yellow path ) and 3 - the roads throughout the park (See the white roads). There are 120 miles of hiking trails in the park. Please note the trail on the most Southern shore of the island, and just east of the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.
That Trail is called Wonder Land Trail which was highly recommended by our Maine friend, Katherine Souza. There is an easily walkable trailhead that leads past many blackberry bushes (upper left are unripened blackberries), and lots of bushes with large red fruits (see bottom left photo). The trail ends with quite the vista of the Atlantic Ocean. We were there as the tide was going out so we got to see a lot of tide pools and the interesting marine life.
The park loop road, a 27 mile thoroughfare, starts immediately after the Hulls Cove Visitor Center. This is the first pull over - what a great way to start!
One of the highlights of the Park loop is Sand Beach, the park's only sand beach on the ocean. To put it in perspective, ocean temperatures in this area seldom climb above 55 degrees F!! Instead of a dip in the ocean we found a nice flat rock and enjoyed a picnic lunch while we sat and watched the crazies running into the water. We actually spent some time here just relaxing as we took in the picture perfect ocean view and the soft ocean breeze.
We stopped at Jordan Pond, as famous for pop overs (a flaky type biscuit) and lemonade as it is for the bubble mountains, the siamese twin mountains in the background that were sculpted by glaciers.
Between 1913 and 1940 John D. Rockefeller, Jr. built 45 miles of crushed stone roads that can be used by bike, horse, horse drawn carriage or just on foot. Though often called the Carriage Trails, the "trails" are 16 feet wide! Rockefeller wanted to travel on Motor-free byways into the heart of Mount Desert Island. Rockefeller also financed 16 of the...
... 17 spectacular steel reinforced concrete and stone bridges. Local workers quarried granite on the island for the facing. We once again packed a lunch and found a site on this bridge with a very serene waterfall in the background and looking over the other side of the bridge provided a view of the great hiking trails. How do you like this get up, my bike helmet, my sparkle cap and sunglasses, bike gloves, rain jacket and back pack with our lunch - I've got all the bases covered!!
Large blocks of granite line the roads serving as guardrails. They have affectionately been called "Rockafeller's teeth."
In 1929 Rockefeller started planning two formal entrances to the park which were to be true gatehouses, built from native cut granite. This is the Jordan Pond Gatehouse, its job of guarding the gate is now an honorary one.
A drive to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, the highest mountain in Maine at 1,530 feet brings you up to the park's highest peak as well as the tallest mountain on the Atlantic Coast north of Brazil. If you get there at dawn you will see the sun rise in one of the first places in the US. Needless to say we passed on that one! But we did enjoy the 360 degree viewpoint.
The highlight of the Park Loop for us was, without a doubt, Thunder Hole. As wind-driven tides sweep into this narrow granite channel, air becomes trapped, escaping with a thunderous report. We were careful to check the tide schedules. Here you see thunder hole at high tide before Irene and...
...Thunder hole while Irene was making her way North. The park rangers had closed off the lower viewing section and I still got soaked when this wave came in!
We really only got the remnants of Irene but she put on quite a show. Bundled up in rain gear it was great to be able to spend hours just watching, with awe, the sheer force of nature!!!
We spent a week in this area and there was still so much more to do. But, we have a lot of miles to travel so onward to our next stop, Scarborough, Maine.
The park is predominantly located on the Eastern side of Mt. Desert Island. There are three major portions of the park: 1 - Park loop road (See the yellow path on Eastern side) and 2 - The Carriage Roads, a gift of John D. Rockefeller (See the red path west of the Park Loop Road (west of the yellow path ) and 3 - the roads throughout the park (See the white roads). There are 120 miles of hiking trails in the park. Please note the trail on the most Southern shore of the island, and just east of the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.
That Trail is called Wonder Land Trail which was highly recommended by our Maine friend, Katherine Souza. There is an easily walkable trailhead that leads past many blackberry bushes (upper left are unripened blackberries), and lots of bushes with large red fruits (see bottom left photo). The trail ends with quite the vista of the Atlantic Ocean. We were there as the tide was going out so we got to see a lot of tide pools and the interesting marine life.
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