#Schummer14: Day 15-18 recap of Summer of Schnyder ~ Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine

A week before our visit to Acadia National Park, it was named as the Favorite Place in America by the viewers of Good Morning America. We’ve been to a number of national parks and this definitely rates as one of our favorites.

What I liked best about it was the diversity and accessibility – you could be on a sandy beach, in a rocky cove looking up at a lighthouse, at the highest peak on the east coast (Cadillac Mountain – 1,530 feet), in dense forest or taking an easy walk around a postcard-perfect pond.

This is one of the places along our trip that I hope to get back tone day because there were many things we didn’t get to do during our four days here. What we did do during our four-night stay:

Scenery

First of all, the drive along Route 1 from Portland, Maine, in the south part of the state, to Mount Desert Island (pronounced dessert instead of desert) in what is considered the state’s central coast was beautiful! We loved all of the little harbor towns – Rockland, Rockport, Camden, Belfast were some stops we made.

We based our stay in Bar Harbor, which is the larger town on Mount Desert Island. It had plenty to do but wasn’t jam-packed with cars, and our hotel was convenient to get into Acadia National Park or to easily walk to dinner and the harbor for sunset views.

Sunset views: there was one night with some pretty heavy fog (you’ll see some fog in daytime photos too) but otherwise we had great sunset views. We went on a sea kayak one night from Bar Harbor out around Bar Island. The other nights, we just stood on the dock and enjoyed the view. Oh and two hours before and after low tide, a sand bar becomes walkable between Bar Harbor and Bar Island. We did this on the night of all the fog. It was fun and lots of people were out there exploring the tide pools to see what marine life they could find.

Sunrise views: we got up early one morning to witness a sunrise on Cadillac Mountain, which at certain times of the year is the first place in the country to see the sun. We woke up at 4:40 a.m., made the short drive into the park and up to the 1,530-foot summit and watched the sun pop out about 5:12. I was surprised at how light it already was at 5. It was worth doing … once J {not a morning person}

Tip: get up there about 20 minutes before stated sunrise to find a parking spot and to get a spot on the mountain to watch from (it’s a large summit area, so there’s plenty of room for everyone – I’d say there were a couple hundred up there the morning we went). Another tip: if you can do it, go ahead and do the park’s auto loop after sunrise because there is hardly anyone in the park. We started to do it, but we were in a zombie-like state because it was way too early for us! So after a few miles, we went back to our hotel and slept a couple more hours then went back to the park with a picnic lunch and had plenty of energy for a good hike!

Acadia has something like 50,000 acres so we didn’t put a dent in all there is to do within the park, but we saw most of the must-dos and a few others.

Jordan Pond Trail: More of a walk than a hike but awesome photo opps.

Pemetic Mountain: This will always be referred to as “death hike” by Lee. Let’s just say that when there’s a sign for “Ravine or Ledge” it’s not a good thing. Nobody recommended this hike, we just decided on a whim to take it when we saw a connector from the Jordan Pond Trail. There’s a reason nobody mentioned it – it was incredibly hard work and compared to the other vistas, it wasn’t worth the work of the steep grades and very steep granite faced climb of the “ledge.” The good side: we did it the first day and after that all the other hikes seemed easier!

Acadia Mountain: the namesake mountain was one of my favorite hikes because you had great views of Somes Sound, a narrow body of water that divides the island.

Gorham Mountain to The Bowl: reaching this summit provided another great view, and we hiked further up a nearby trail to The Bowl – a big pond where we sat peacefully for awhile.

Food

We didn’t have any remarkable meals while here – however, I will be dreaming for a long time about the blueberry daiquiri I had the first night in Bar Harbor. I’m not even a huge fan of blueberry flavor but this drink tasted fresh and amazing. It was more like a dessert {not desert} than a boozy beverage. My second favorite food item was a homemade oatmeal cream cookie that was so yummy! I got that one night when we pieced together dinner by walking from pizza joint to pizza joint ordering a slice to go (a favorite pastime for Lee!). Lee finally tried a whoopie pie, which are almost as popular as blueberries over here. His thought: meh.

Lobster – I had a lobster omelet for brunch in Portland, Maine, before we drove up the coast. However, I was told that the lobster on Mount Desert Island was much fresher than anywhere else if you go to one of the lobster pounds right on the water on the quiet side of the island (according to a regular visitor to the area). We chose Beal’s, where I had a lobster roll and enjoyed it but I couldn’t tell if it was fresher than any other I’d had. I like lobster so I had quite a bit of it, along with a lot of chowder. I even tried lobster ice cream at one of the local ice cream shops – just a taster, not a scoop. It really didn’t taste like lobster.

Blueberry – Vermont has maple everything … Maine has blueberry everything. I had that delicious blueberry daiquiri, I guzzled a bottle blueberry soda twice, I ate a handful of blueberry popcorn, I sampled blueberry ice cream and I ate blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins, of course.

Advice

Go see Acadia National Park if you haven’t! It was the reason we came to Maine and I’m so glad we did!

Stay away from the death hike!

 

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#Schummer14 – Lee & MeLinda Schnyder are turning their home in Wichita, Kan., over to a friend and taking a month-long road trip. They’ll travel from Kansas to Ontario and Quebec, Canada; then through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The trip home will include stops in Ohio and Missouri. Beyond the blog, you can follow #Schummer14 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.