Day 14: Acadia National Park (Eric)

Day 14 (June 12, 2021): On this day, we decided to rent bikes and explore the park via the aforementioned carriage roads that cover many areas around the park. 

We had plans to ride the road near Eagle Lake, but I forgot to mention that the night we arrived a freak storm hit the island and brought 5” of rain in a very short time accompanied by strong winds. This storm ended up damaging several of the roads, so the Park Rangers closed them down for repairs. It was a little disappointing, but it gives us an excuse to return. 

Instead, we took a road that ran from Hadlock Pond to Jordan Pond. While the scenery was awesome, neither Jenny nor I had been on a bike for a while, and this section of the carriage roads was a little more up and down than we were expecting. It ended up being a tough but beautiful ride. The roads have several stone bridges in parts of the park that are cool to see. 

Once we made it to Jordan Pond, we were going to treat ourselves to lunch at the famous Jordan Pond House. However, when we arrived, we learned that the restaurant had a gas leak that they were working to repair and had to close temporarily. Luckily enough, we learned that the leak would be fixed soon, and they would be reopening. We got in the already long line of people waiting and were a little skeptical of our chances to get seated right away. Sure enough when we got to the front of the line, we were told it would be an hour and half before we would be seated. We took our pager with the intent of exploring the pond area for a while until our table was ready. We hadn’t even left the restaurant area when our pager went off. We were both confused but went to see the hostess and were immediately seated in an awesome spot overlooking Jordan Pond. We weren’t entirely sure how this all happened, but we felt blessed. 

The food here is fairly good. We shared an order of their famous popovers - pastries served with butter and jam. They’re a fun, little treat. We then shared an amazing lobster stew that was filled with huge chunks of lobster meat. It was a nice break before we had to get back on the bikes and head back to our car. 

Before getting on the bikes, we did spend a few minutes exploring the south side of Jordan Pond. It is a beautiful pond nestled in the middle of forests and hills. 

Break over, back on the bikes…

This ended up being a full-day excursion, and we really did enjoy this experience even though it ended up being more work than we were prepared for. I think the most frustrating part was being passed by the wimps on e-bikes. But I think if we were going to do this particular ride over again, we would join the wimps. 

Day 13: Acadia National Park (Eric)

Day 13 (June 11, 2021): Today was one of the busier days of our trip, but also one of the coolest. Although the whole day was not spent exploring the park, we did spend a fair bit of time on some hikes through some beautiful scenery and along the coastline on the east side of the park. 

But our day actually started with exploring Northeast Harbor, another small town on the quiet side of the island. There’s not really much to see in the town, but it was still interesting to see and explore the marina as well as a stone beach near the town where I had fun skipping rocks. 

Across the street from the beach was part of the park that includes a section of the Carriage Roads created by Rockefeller which run all over the island and park system. This particular section on the southwest side of the park was peaceful as it does not allow bikes. If you hike along most of the other Carriage Roads in the park, you will have to share them with a fair amount of bicycle traffic as this is a popular thing to do in the park. In fact, we ended up renting bikes to explore a different section of the roads (more about that in another post). Anyway, this hike around one of the many lakes on the island was one of the highlights of the trip as it was completely spontaneous and ended up being thoroughly enjoyable as it was beautiful and not too crowded compared to other trails in the park. 

After this, we hopped onto the Park Loop Road which as it sounds takes you on a loop around the park. It is a scenic drive even if you don’t stop, but it is definitely worth stopping along the way. Part of the road that runs along the coast is one way, and it is definitely one of the most popular and beautiful parts of the park. While you may have to battle the crowds a little, this section is definitely worth seeing. 

Along the road we stopped at the appropriately named Sandy Beach as a jumping off point to hike along the coastline to Otter Point. The beach is very nice and probably would’ve been even nicer had the weather been a little warmer. June in Maine can still be in the 50’s and windy as it was on this day. 

Hiking along the coastline from the beach to Otter Point has some of the more breathtaking views you can find in the park. We found ourselves stopping frequently to take pictures and just enjoy the scenery.

I was tempted to try to capture the views with a few panoramic pictures, but I still don’t feel that they quite capture the beauty and serenity of this amazing place. 

We also took a number of other pictures along the trail…

After an exhilarating day of hiking and being  out in nature, we had built up quite an appetite, so we decided to return to Southwest Harbor to eat at a place called Beal’s Lobster Pier. This place is exactly what it sounds like which is a working lobster pier where they bring in and process freshly caught lobster. You can buy live ones or a variety of different preparations of lobster. We decided on lobster rolls, with Jenny getting hers chilled with mayo, and I got a warm one with melted butter. Both were amazing. It’s a fun place to eat. 

Our day ended with a trip to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse to watch the sunset. If you Google Acadia National Park, pictures of this lighthouse will show up even though it is technically not in the park. It is one of the most photographed lighthouses/places in the United States. Part of the fun was seeing how many photographers and tourists were gathered to await the sunset. The photographers were all talking shop, and the rest of the tourists were just talking about their experiences in the park and beyond. One of the joys of travel is meeting new people and learning about new places. 

Anyway, on to the pictures which again will not capture the beauty of this moment…

I took a couple of panoramic photos as well…

This one was to capture the number of people…

And one to capture the view…

And a final sunset view that I captured on the way back to the cottage…

Overall, this was a magical day, and I was happy to share it with my best friend and wife, Jenny. It was this day that had us both realize we would have liked to spend more than a week in the park. This is definitely a place that both of us would be happy to visit again.