I’ll start with some general information about the coastline of Maine. We learned that Maine has over 4,600 islands, and many of them are privately owned. There are 66 historic lighthouses scattered along the coastal area, but not all of them are on islands. There’s a famous lighthouse near Bass Harbor where people take pictures during sunset that is one such example. I’ll talk more about that particular lighthouse in a later post as we joined the throng of photographers and tourists to take a picture. Anyway, back to the boat tour, we visited three different lighthouses during our tour. Lighthouses are no longer used for the original purpose of keeping ships from crashing into rocks. Modern navigation and bells on a buoys can solve that problem. However, private owners and historical societies have been keeping these lighthouses around as sort of history museums and also for use as research stations. The lighthouse on the puffin island is home to researchers who continue to monitor the birds’ progress.
I won’t remember the names of each of the lighthouses we visited, but the first was Egg Rock. In addition to the lighthouse, the island also served as a harbor seal sanctuary and research center. It was neat to see the harbor seals splashing about in the water and on the rocks of this small island.
We also caught sight of a young bald eagle perched on the rocks (not the best picture as he was far away)…
By the way, binoculars are a good idea thing to bring on this excursion as it definitely allows you to see the wildlife better. Which brings me to the next lighthouse and island we visited, Petit Manan (I looked up the name). Which not only contains an amazing lighthouse but one of the few colonies of puffins found in the U.S. The aforementioned binoculars were very helpful here as neither Jenny nor I realized that puffins are about the size of a well-fed pigeon. The pictures I took won’t really capture the birds well, but they are definitely cute when viewed through binoculars or if you have a better zoom on your camera. Interesting story, puffins had gone extinct in the U.S. due to over hunting, and in the 1970’s naturalists traveled to Canada to bring back puffins to Maine in specially designed suitcases. It took several years, but eventually, they were successful in getting an established puffin colony. They are still trying to grow the puffin population, but there’s a number of factors that still keep the numbers low - predators, competition from other seabirds, environmental issues, etc.
Enjoy some pictures of the lighthouse, but unfortunately, it was too hard to capture a decent photo of the puffins…
Finally, we stopped by Ned Island (I looked this one up too) to see another historic lighthouse. This one has changed owners a number of times, and it is currently owned by a writer. On a side note, these lighthouses don’t have running water, so the owners have to use an outhouse. I think you really would have to enjoy the isolation to commit to living in one of these structures.
Two bald eagles are in this picture…
Overall, this was a wonderful experience, and I recommend it to anyone who happens to be visiting Bar Harbor.
We spent a little while after the excursion exploring the town of Bar Harbor. It is a quaint little town with some interesting shops and good places to eat. The town has more people and traffic than the quiet side of the island, but it also has more services.
On a side note, we spent the rest of the evening taking Bitey to an animal hospital as he was acting more strangely than normal regarding his litter box. This hospital was about an hour away as there are no vet offices open late on the island. Keep this in mind if you’re planning on bringing your pets on a visit to Acadia. Anyway, long story short, he ended up being fine and just seemed to be stressed.
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