Acadia National Park has been on my bucket list for awhile. I tend to like faraway places and given that Acadia National Park is so far away from Denver it is not surprising that I have wanted to go there.
We were overwhelmed when we arrived at the Visitor Center. It was teeming with people. Visiting a National Park with thousands is not our idea of a good time. However, we intended to stay and make the most of it. We chatted with a Park Ranger who gave us some great hiking tips. He also started to stray and tell us about the great hiking in the White Mountains of NH. Since we are not going there this trip we gently steered him back to Acadia National Park. He asked us which campground were staying at and when we said “Seawall Campground”. He said “Oh, you are on the quiet side of the park” Wow, we felt SO much better after hearing that.
Acadia is on Mount Desert Island. A great deal of the island is privately owned and, of course, a great deal of it is owned by the National Park Service. As you drive along various roads the land will alternate between private and park land. You can always tell when you are on the park land because the roads are so much better.
While driving to our campground we saw a seafood shack that we knew we had to return to. We quickly set up camp, grabbed our hiking stuff and set out for the seafood shack.
The food was great. I had my first lobster roll of the trip (hopefully there will be many more) and Tom enjoyed some clam chowder. This place has some serious character. My favorite part was the goats roaming around the backyard next to the small family cemetery. It is not every day you eat at a restaurant with its own cemetery. They did not have any signage indicating they give a burial discount with lunch so we felt reasonably comfortable that the two enterprises were unrelated.
After lunch we headed for a hike – Flying Mountain. We hiked up and were very amused to see the sign advertising the great vertical climb that we had accomplished.
Of course, we had started our hike at sea level, but I still do not believe 284 feet is a mountain. It isn’t even a hill – more like a larger boulder. Nonetheless, we did get some great views from on top of Flying mountain.
We took a different route back to the campground so we could see more of the park. It is quite a place. I love the little towns interspersed between the areas of the park. Everything is cute and quaint. There are a lot of avid gardeners living on this island because we have seen some beautiful flowers.
North Atlantic Canada 2019 