Acadia
Last year, when we first went to Acadia, I fell in love. This year, when we crossed the bridge onto Mt. Desert Island, it felt like coming home. There's just something about the ocean, the rocky & forested hilly islands, the granite cliffs.. it's just calming. Maine (at least Downeast Maine) remains one of those places I'd love to settle. (I've actually found my ideal house - a defunct lighthouse but I can't afford it, so I shall take photos of it and stare at it wistfully).
The goal is to make more shorter trips to Acadia - it's only a five hour drive so perfectly doable for a weekend. I'm hoping we can go out there again the second weekend in September, but we'll see. A lot depends on how cheaply we can do our Canada trip.
We're working on doing just a few things every time we go so that we can slowly chip away at the things we want to do there. Which works well with making more short trips.
This past weekend we climbed the beehive. My siblings did this last year when we all went to Acadia, but bad_influence and I did a carriage ride instead. I can't remember if we were intimidated by the beehive or what. All I have to say is it was awesome. There were a few moments of 'don't look down, just hold onto the cliff and the iron bars' but I'm glad we took the hard way up - it gave me that rock climbing / bouldering high that I haven't had in a long time. I want to do it again (and again and again). We ended up going down via The Bowl and next time we climb it, I will make sure to have a swimsuit to go swimming in the Bowl because it looked kind of awesome.
After that, we headed to Bass Harbor to check out the Bass Harbor lighthouse, which, sadly, was a bit underwhelming. But I feel like once you've seen Cape Hatteras, most lighthouses are. It was quaint, but all the "Department of Homeland Security / Coast Guard / No trespassing signs around the actual building took away from it a bit.
Sunday was our trip to Schoodic Peninsula, to see that part of the park. I kind of love it. Compared to the Mt. Desert Island section, it's nearly deserted. Lots of rocky cliffs to explore and climb and scenery for bad_influence to photograph. I definitely had the thought - 'This part is better - less park rangers to tell you to be careful.' Nearly every time we came across rocky cliffs, I scampered out as far as I could. There's something about standing on rock and having the waves crashing that is so calming and simultaneously invigorating to me. I might be a fire sign, but crashing waves like that is like a high to me. (bad_influence blames this on me being on the cusp of a water sign.)
We ended up heading to Little Moose Island, which is this adorable island accessible at low tide - so you have to know the tide schedule or else you get to swim back. We had lunch overlooking Schoodic Point, and then went exploring. Took the trail through an area that looked like Scotland (we joked) and ate quite a few wild blueberries (always delicious). When we got out towards the tip - the cliffs were amazing and I climbed down into one of the chasms for the rush of it.
Somewhere among the cliffs we lost the trail through the middle of the island and then had to follow the coast back which is where I slipped on a rock and bruised the back of my thigh. Apparently from where bad_influence was standing, it looked like I would have hit the family jewels.
After finishing up on Schoodic, we went investigating wineries, but both were closed that day, so we headed back, taking Coastal Route 1 until we got to Bath. I ended up reading up a bit on the shipbuilding history of Maine at our campground, which just makes me fall in love with the state more.
I cannot wait for the Canada road trip - still working on planning out the loose itinerary (which basically just means campgrounds) and a rough idea of the route. Deviations from the plan are always welcome.
The goal is to make more shorter trips to Acadia - it's only a five hour drive so perfectly doable for a weekend. I'm hoping we can go out there again the second weekend in September, but we'll see. A lot depends on how cheaply we can do our Canada trip.
We're working on doing just a few things every time we go so that we can slowly chip away at the things we want to do there. Which works well with making more short trips.
This past weekend we climbed the beehive. My siblings did this last year when we all went to Acadia, but bad_influence and I did a carriage ride instead. I can't remember if we were intimidated by the beehive or what. All I have to say is it was awesome. There were a few moments of 'don't look down, just hold onto the cliff and the iron bars' but I'm glad we took the hard way up - it gave me that rock climbing / bouldering high that I haven't had in a long time. I want to do it again (and again and again). We ended up going down via The Bowl and next time we climb it, I will make sure to have a swimsuit to go swimming in the Bowl because it looked kind of awesome.
After that, we headed to Bass Harbor to check out the Bass Harbor lighthouse, which, sadly, was a bit underwhelming. But I feel like once you've seen Cape Hatteras, most lighthouses are. It was quaint, but all the "Department of Homeland Security / Coast Guard / No trespassing signs around the actual building took away from it a bit.
Sunday was our trip to Schoodic Peninsula, to see that part of the park. I kind of love it. Compared to the Mt. Desert Island section, it's nearly deserted. Lots of rocky cliffs to explore and climb and scenery for bad_influence to photograph. I definitely had the thought - 'This part is better - less park rangers to tell you to be careful.' Nearly every time we came across rocky cliffs, I scampered out as far as I could. There's something about standing on rock and having the waves crashing that is so calming and simultaneously invigorating to me. I might be a fire sign, but crashing waves like that is like a high to me. (bad_influence blames this on me being on the cusp of a water sign.)
We ended up heading to Little Moose Island, which is this adorable island accessible at low tide - so you have to know the tide schedule or else you get to swim back. We had lunch overlooking Schoodic Point, and then went exploring. Took the trail through an area that looked like Scotland (we joked) and ate quite a few wild blueberries (always delicious). When we got out towards the tip - the cliffs were amazing and I climbed down into one of the chasms for the rush of it.
Somewhere among the cliffs we lost the trail through the middle of the island and then had to follow the coast back which is where I slipped on a rock and bruised the back of my thigh. Apparently from where bad_influence was standing, it looked like I would have hit the family jewels.
After finishing up on Schoodic, we went investigating wineries, but both were closed that day, so we headed back, taking Coastal Route 1 until we got to Bath. I ended up reading up a bit on the shipbuilding history of Maine at our campground, which just makes me fall in love with the state more.
I cannot wait for the Canada road trip - still working on planning out the loose itinerary (which basically just means campgrounds) and a rough idea of the route. Deviations from the plan are always welcome.