5/23/2015 Bar Harbor Spring (#4) and our 34th Wedding Anniversary

Distant View of Sand Beach (right) from Great Point Trail

Tending to John's bucket list, it's Memorial Day weekend and we head further north as Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine experiences Spring (our #4).   This place is right up there near the top of our best places we have visited. The Park's ocean side  

Our Blackrock Campsite

Blackrock Campground is a spectacular microcosm of the Mount Desert Island landscape which is covered in trees and rocks.  The first few days greet us with temperature in the low 40's at night, foggy mornings, and windy 50's during the day.  The weather reminds John of his recent trip to Ireland.   Most people are in tents or pop up campers with little protection from the cold and wind. No thank you, I will stick to "glamping" as Zoe calls it.  Warmer sunny days arrive later in the week. The campground is full but so spread out and wooded that it feels roomy and peaceful.  Campground utilities include only bathrooms and a few water spigots here and there, so we are dry camping. 

Evening Meditation Site

This means we live off our fresh water tank, run the generator every day to charge the RV batteries for electricity, and collect waste water in our "gray and black water" tanks to be dumped as we exit the park.  We love the smell of campfires burning most of the day for warmth and cooking, waking each morning to the sound of lobster boats motoring down the coast checking their traps and our after dinner 5 minute walk to the rocky shoreline to take in it's serene magnificence.
Like many of our national parks, Acadia National Park is a result of wealthy citizens buying and then donating, hundreds of thousands of acreage to the government for the sole purpose of protecting magnificent landscapes and ecosystems. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his heirs donated much of the land for Acadia National Park.  His son, David Rockefeller celebrated his 100th birthday while we were here and just made public many more tracts of land in this area.  In the mid 1800's, Rockefeller and other industrial titans of the day

Bar Harbor early 1800's

including the Astor's, Ford's, Vanderbilt's, Pulitzer's,  and Morgan's, built "summer cottages" along the rocky shore of Bar Harbor.  Unfortunately, a massive wild fire in 1947 burned thousands of acres including much of the town and these cottages.   Hotels and restaurants are now built on some of their foundations.  These aristocrats didn't like the noise and smell of the newly invented automobile as they ambled down the 45 miles of carriage trails so Rockefeller build separate roads for the cars, showcasing numerous stone bridges which we are driving on today.  These wonderful carriage trails through the forests, around ponds and along the shoreline are still used for buggy rides in the Fall, and for hiking, biking and cross country skiing. 

Sunrise Over Bar Harbor from Cadillac Mt

One morning we get up at 4 a.m., put coffee in a thermos, packed hard boiled eggs and bacon we cooked the day before on the campfire, and head out to watch the sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain (tallest mountain on the Atlantic coast north of Brazil).  They say this spot is the first piece of land in the U.S. touched by the morning sun. A thousand other early risers beat us to it and we had to fight through a traffic jam.  But oh was it worth it. Next time we will arrive at least a half hour before sunrise to see more of the color changes.  And yes, there will be a next time!  After sunrise we stop by a peregrine falcon nesting area along Precipice Peak and take a walking tour of lovely downtown Bar Harbor.  Since the 12 foot tide is out, we walk across the sandbar to Bar Island and hike to it's peak for a fabulous view of the town.  And it's only 9 a.m......

Sand Beach From Hiking Trail

There is so much to do we pack our days with biking around Eagle Lake, hiking around Bubble Lake and the rocky cliffs above Sand Beach where ocean temperatures rarely get above 55 degrees. A relaxing picnic on Little Long Pond is much appreciated after rigorous kayaking in Seal Harbor.  In town we enjoy quaint shops, Victorian B&B's, and Mexican spiced hot chocolate at the Choco-Latte.  We see loons, a bald eagle and  peregrine falcon, beaver, beaver damns, and a deer and fox family encounter just off the Ocean Path which runs along Bar Harbor.  So much more to do and see, next time instead of 6 days we need a couple weeks!



Lobstah and Blueberry Martini Anniversary Celebration

 What a great way to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary!