September 24--Acadia National Park/Bar Harbor

What an absolutely gorgeous day it was today in Acadia National Park! There was not a cloud in the sky, the temperatures were pleasant throughout the day, and we got started touring Acadia Park before most of the buses got on the road.

We headed to Cadillac Mountain to see the view all around Maine. And it was spectacular! Hardly any wind, lots of ocean, islands, bays, and fall colors. Cadillac Mountain is the highest point along the North Atlantic seaboard and is the first place to view sunrise in the United States from October 7 through March 6. We missed it by a few days and hours, but it was impressive, nevertheless. The 3.5 mile road to Cadillac Mountain winds around the mountain, through granite fields and spruce forests and deciduous trees turning colors now.

After stopping at the view sites, we continued on around the northern side of the island. There were lots of bicyclists out and about, and lots of great looking hiking trails. The tour buses caught up with us, so we pulled over wherever they were, to see the sites. The sea was pretty calm and sailboats were motoring around the island. There was a HUGE cruise ship in the harbor that we could see from the loop road, and we got another glimpse of it when we went into Bar Harbor later in the day for lunch and to sightsee in the shops.

Did you know that Acadia is the only national park that is made up entirely of land donated from private individuals? At Sand Beach, we met a fellow who was related to one of the original owners. His family had owned all of Sand Beach years ago, and donated it to the park. What a great gift!

The town of Bar Harbor and the historic dock area is well populated by the usual ice cream and fudge stores, souvenir shops, and restaurants, and lots and lots of people from the Holland cruise vessel that seemed to dwarf everything else in the harbor. We wandered around for a while, uploaded some blog pages, and headed back to camp for a restful late afternoon and evening. I picked some more blueberries for breakfast, and we packed up as much as we could so we could get an early start to NH and Jon’s tomorrow.