Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Acadia National Park has several sections. The main attractions, so to speak, are on Mount Desert Island. There is a road from the town of Trenton that leads onto the island. Much of the island is further sectioned off into two halves, call them southwest and northeast, by the Somes Sound. The southern half has a few small towns. It also has Seawall Campground, where I stayed for my first five nights. The first few days at Seawall had sunny skies with temperatures in the upper 60s to low 70s. It was great for bike riding and taking walks. It was quiet, sparsely populated, sparsely visited, and very beautiful. I wrote about that in a previous post.
The northeast half has the town of Bar Harbor in it, which is well populated and highly developed. The northeat half also has the park’s main visitor center, Hulls Cove, and many of the park’s main attractions, such as Cadillac Mountain, Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, and some riding stables for horses. There are over forty miles of Carriage Roads. There is also something called The Park Road, a loop of about 20 miles, which hugs the rugged coastline for several miles and has spectacular views. There is ample parking, and there are trails from which to enjoy the rocky coast. By far, the northern half is the more popular, more crowded area, although at the time of my visit, just around the time that schools were letting out for the summer, it did not seem overly crowded. I’ll return to this park shortly, but first about my second stop, Schoodic Campground.
Schoodic Peninsula is northeast of Mount Desert Island. It is very much isolated. I stopped at an art gallery, Littlefield Gallery, on Schoodic, and the owner, Kelly Littlefield, told me that people often say they arrived there “by mistake.” That is, they took a wrong turn, became lost, and ended up there. It’s a beautiful place to be lost! His gallery has some fantastic stone sculptures. Larger sculptures, outside the gallery on the lawn, are what drew me in.
The campground is relatively new, built in 2016. The campsites are private and large, and they have electricity. There is a trail system (unpaved) for bicycles and hikers as well as some rugged hiking trails (not for bikes). The main road around the peninsula is an eleven-mile loop, some of which is one-way only, right on the coast for several miles. Between the trail systems and roads, one has easy access to the fantastic sights. Frazier Point is one place worth visiting, accessible by trail or by road. It was a short (0.7 miles on the map) walk from the campground office. It overlooks Winter Harbor and opens to the east and the Atlantic Ocean. Winter Harbor is also the name of the local town where Littlefield Gallery is located. From Frazier Point, one can follow the scenic drive about four miles out to Schoodic Point. This drive has views of Mount Desert Island, dominated by Cadillac Mountain, and ends at Schoodic Point, where one can experience crashing waves up and close, as the flattish rocks invite dramatic views and experiences.
I was at Schoodic three nights, and I was wishing I had several more. I had originally booked five nights, but when a site at Blackwoods Campground opened up, I canceled two of them and took a site for two nights at Blackwoods. Blackwoods is in the popular section of Mount Desert Island, and it is the most crowded and popular campground. I liked Schoodic so much that I kind of wished I had not made that change, but Blackwoods turned out to be a good move, because …
… Blackwoods gave me access to the Park Road and Cadillac Mountain. My first day there, I did the Park Road Loop and the climb up Cadillac. It is about a three-mile climb, but it is not very steep, gaining about 900 feet. The views at the top are spectacular. It’s such a good feeling. The photo above is from the top, looking down at Bar Harbor. There was fog over the water to begin the day. As some lifted, some remained over islands in the harbor. Those bumps in the fog cover have islands below them. Interesting and beautiful!
There is a half-mile trail along the top of the mountain, all along a mostly rockface surface. And I learned that there was a trail to the top from Blackwoods Campground! So, the next day, I hiked to the top. It was 8.4 miles round-trip from my campsite. This had a greater elevation change, about 1,300 feet. The hike is fantastic, with about two-thirds of it being on often exposed rock surfaces with fantastic views of the ocean and surrounding islands.
Breathtaking ...
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