Acadia National Park

We spent the last few days at Acadia National Park and the surrounding Mount Desert Island. We started our adventures at the visitor center, where we learned that Aiden would be allowed on leash throughout the park with the exceptions of some hikes where she really shouldn't go anyway. (Note: dogs are not allowed on the beach and Echo Lake during peak season).

We started on a walk around Jordan Pond. After getting to the far side, Andreas went on a hike with Aiden up to Sargent Mountains, then along the ridge southward to Penobscot Mountain before heading back down. They ended up not being able to come down the ridge the most direct way because there was a part that was too steep down rocks for Aiden to take. The peaks yielded magnificent views of the Maine landscape, broken up lakes, inlets, bays and islands.

Jordan Pond

South facing view from Penobscot Mountain

Too steep for Aiden

In the evening, we grabbed a lobster grilled cheese sandwich from Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound and drove to the Bass Harbor Light House. We had to park the RV up the road so we just missed sunset, but still had some beautiful views of the orange-red sky and the lighthouse on the rocks above. The lobster sandwich was amazing, and we saved the bisque that came with it for a "Lobster Alfredo" spaghetti the next day!

Kathleen eating dinner at sunset

Andreas snapping pictures of the sunset

After a short night rest at our basecamp at Walmart in Ellsworth, we woke up early to catch the sunrise! We went back into the park and drove along the one-way road on the West side of the Island. Had we been up on Cadillac Mountain, we would have been among the very first people in the U.S. to see the sun that day. Unfortunately RVs are not allowed up to drive the peak, presumably because of narrow winding roads and limited parking at the top. But it was still lovely along the park loop road, and it was more secluded.

Sunrise at Acadia National Park

After sunrise, we visited a few other points of interest: one of very few cold water, shell rich, and sandy beaches in the U.S. and thunder hole, a place where, when the conditions are right, the waves come crashing into the rock with a loud thundering noise because of a cave that echos the noise.

Sand Beach

Thunder Hole

Our last bit of tourism on the island was a visit to Bar Harbor and a walk across a sand bar to Bar Island. The town of Bar Harbor is a tourist town that entertains cruise ships in the summer and had everything that went along with such a town: touristy shops, local ice cream, fancy restaurants and bars, and lots tour companies offering trips into the national park. The sand bar we crossed onto bar island is only accessible at low tide. On the island we went on a short hike to the top, which had another great view of Bar Harbor and the rest of the island.

Full crab carapace found on the sand bar. This fella outgrew his old shell

View of Bar Harbor from Bar Island

All in all Acadia was a beautiful place to visit. The seasonal reds, oranges, yellows and greens are a brilliant mix of color that we're not used to seeing in the Pacific Northwest. 

Travel Update 6

After leaving DC we knew we wanted to head out to Assateague Island, as well as visit one of Kathleen's friends in Baltimore, then we had major decisions to make.

We were planning to go to Acadia first but we started to second guess ourselves. It is already getting cold in the Northeast and we were worried that we might have missed a lot of the fall foliage. Also, we want to see Quebec and Nova Scotia as well as the Canadian side of Niagara and Kathleen had to renew her passport. We also considered doing a loop back to parks in Michigan or heading straight south.

We eventually settled on our original plan of heading north first and we are glad we did. Even though we were a little late for the leaves in a few places:

Some were still perfect:

Our main misfortune on this section came when we crossed a bridge into New Jersey and went to put the sticker on our map. We realized that we had left the stickers on the bike rack after putting Pennsylvania on at our campsite. 

We thought about turning around but the bridge was tolled in the other direction and it would take us about an hour and a half to go around and back to the campsite. We decided to simply re-purchase the map from Amazon when we got internet, only to find that the map has been discontinued. We ended up buying a new map that we might place over the original. The idea of getting rid of the first one makes us sad so for the moment we have the new one in the window. We'll stop by our campsite on the way back down to see if we can find the stickers, but the odds aren't good. :/ 

 

Other adventures include a bridge with a "9 foot" clearance that we thought we wouldn't make it under. Only to find out that New York has a different way of measuring than we do... 

We also knew that we had to stop by Williamstown, MA where Aleah, Kathleen's best friend growing up, lived before moving to Eugene. Kathleen had heard many stories of Lickity Split Ice Cream, but unfortunately it was closed for the season. We did however get to walk around the campus of William's College and see Aleah's old house. 

Free campsites have been a little hard to find in the Northeast but the ones we have found have been lovely.