Acadia National Park

We are on our way to the only national park in the state of Maine, and in fact, all of New England, Acadia National Park. One distinguishing factor is the park's rich human history that includes: Native Americans, pilgrims, European settlers, artists, conservationists, and others. Each made a mark on this national park. The other is the unusual combination of ocean and mountain scenery. And Mount Desert Island is the largest rock based island on the Atlantic Coast.

Native Americans lived here more than 5000 years ago. They were followed by the French and English. By the 1800s, settlers began fishing, shipbuilding, farming, and lumbering. For the sake of my sanity and yours, I am going to skip any greater detail of the area's ethnographics and homesteading history.

The park is located on Mount Desert Island on the Maine coast. It is only 50 miles from Bangor and 254 miles from Boston. One of the highlights of the park are the numerous seaside trails and carriage roads. The name Acadia probably stems from the name given to the area by the explorer, Giovanni Verrazano in 1524. The average snowfall here is 60 inches, but we are here during the best leaf peeping period.

Among the animals and birds here, we hope to see puffins, along with spring warblers, sea ducks, and migrating birds of prey. Falcons and hawks have been spotted here as well (get it, spotted?). Seals, bears, whales, and moose are less frequently spotted near the island. More than 500 types of wildflowers grow in the park. Some are Arctic species.

The park itself is a cluster of islands off the coast of Maine. It is located between the broad transition zone between eastern deciduous and northern coniferous forests. Cadillac Mountain, at 1530 feet is the tallest point on the Atlantic Coast. The roughly 45,000 acres consists of both fresh and salt water, mountains, forests, and meadows, along with beaches and wetlands. It is also the first national park EAST of the Mississippi River.

The nearest town is called Bar Harbor, where we will stay. That should give us plenty of time to explore, shop, eat, and relax. This would also be a great place to visit in warmer weather, since the fishing and kayaking look really good here.

Bar Harbor was also the summer playground for my friends, Joseph Pulitzer and John D. Rockefeller. But the Great Depression removed much of the leisure class from Bar Harbor. But the Island Explorer is a free shuttle bus in the area. Bar Harbor is also the main departure point for Nova Scotia via high speed catamaran.

We will pass through Augusta, the state capital since 1827. The city differes from other Maine communities in that most communities that occupy both sides of a river usually grow into twin cities. The Maine State House was designed by Charles Bulfinch, what a great name. Bangor, my old stop for refueling on my early trips to Europe on $99 charters, is not on my radar for this trip!

It took a total of about three hours to get here. We stopped briefly in Freeport again, just to shop at LL Bean again. Then we drove up 295, 95, and 3 to get here. The last 20 miles took over an hour due to road construction. But it was worth it. Bar Harbor, pronounced, baa haabaa by locals, is the neatest little tourist town, filled with shops and restaurants. We went to Galyn's on recommendation of the hotel folks. And it was great.

We shared a lobster bisque, then a special sald. Sheri had a Maine lobster enchilada, and I had the steamed tail for only $15. We topped it off with a small, but overly delicious blueberry cobbler with homemade ice cream. Wow.

Today, we will see the park proper, drive and hike some of it, and return to the downtown area. We first drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point in the park. From there, we could see water on three sides, though the wind was blowing like Louis Armstrong on the trumpet. From there, we headed over to a lower road that circles the park. While it was already too cold to spot many animals, the views were magnificent. It was one of only three sunny days in Mainethis week.

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