Days 24-26: Acadia National Park

Let’s see... always hard to update when i’ve Missed a few days. There was no cell service in Acadia, and we weren’t in Bar Harbor long enough to devote time to blogs. So better late than never. 

On route to Acadia we stopped at the old man in the mountain monument in Mew Hampshire. This guy, or more precisely, collection of rocks that looks like a guy is pretty much the face of New Hampshire. Sadly, that part of the mountain collapsed in 2003. So what you have now is an interesting little monument that lets you recreate the face as it would have appeared. There are a series of tall metal posts with funny looking bumpy ridges at the top. The idea is that you stand on the mark that corresponds yo your height by one of these posts and squint. If you are in the right spot, the post and bumps line up on the mountain side where the face used to be and you see a sort of bronzed rock face. It works pretty well. 

We also stopped at the capitol in Augusta, Maine. Didn’t tour the inside of the building, just walked the grounds outside. Add Augusta to the growing list of capitol cities we have visited. 

By the time we get to Acadia, it’s time to set up camp. For the first time, it looks like weather will not be an issue for camping. We took the little walk from the campground to the cliff overlooking the ocean. I love the ocean, and the mountains. When they come together like this it’s pretty darn special to me. 

Went to a ranger program that first night. The projector was broken so the ranger asked the attendees to do a talent show. Alex told a couple of pubs, lots of other people participated. The ranger did tslkfor anout5 minutes on the climate and changes to the park.

The next couple of days were spent exploring Acadia. Wednesday we hit the highlights of Thunder Hole, Sand Beach, Jordan Pond and the carriage houses. Made it into Bar Harbor to explore as well. We rode the shuttle around, the park was crazy busy, parking was an issue at the popular spots. 

Thursday we started a little earlier, went up Cadillac mountain, back to Thunder Hole (better show today), Otter Cliff, and exploring tide pools along the bar between Mt. Desert Island and Bar Island at low tide. We also explored Bar Island a bit by itself. 

This post lacks a bit of detail, always hard to think back on the events of the past few days and not miss much. Aside from some lightning and distant thunder (no rain) the first night, camping was great. Weather was gorgeous, nights were cool. All of our camping gear investments again proved to be good ones. We used the fleece jackets we picked up from Pat and Ed in Baltimore, as well as the blankets I bought in Shenandoah. We also used the wine glasses and coffee mugs Erin gave us in Baltimore. I intended to ship those things back to Texas but never got around to it! Guess it’s a good thing I still had them.