Southern New England Outdoor and Nature Site: Acadia Part Deux

We did so many fun things in Acadia National Park in four days I had to split the blog post into two. The point is, if you are looking for an inexpensive outdoor family vacation, there is something in Acadia for everyone

Day 3- Thursday-

We had to get up early for the third straight day. We had to be at Ship Harbor trailhead for 7 am. We went on a ranger guided bird walk. We had signed up for it on Wednesday at the Visitor Center. It is free to go on the walk but you do need reservations because they limit the program to 20 participants. Anyone that goes on the bird walk this time of year is a pretty experienced birder. All the families are back at home because of school. I'd say, of the 18 people (two no-shows) fifteen of us were experienced.

The small gull dead center with the smudge on its head
is a Bonaparte Gull

There weren't a lot of birds in the woods. We saw an Osprey on a snag near the water. I've seen tons of Osprey this year, but people vacationing from far away may not. We saw Common Eider ducks and a Kingfisher. By far the best bird was a Wilson's Storm Petrel over the ocean. We also had a juvenile Black Guillemot near shore. I got two new year birds Northern Gannet and Bonaparte Gull.

After we left the bird walk we hiked up Flying Mountain. This is a short hike with 270 feet of elevation gain. However, it overlooks the mouth of the only fjord on the east coast. It is pretty, but the sun came out and it got hot really quickly. We were happy to come down and turn the A/C on.

The opening of Somes Sound from
Flying Mountain

There are two beaches in Acadia. One is on the ocean called Sand Beach. The water is freezing. The other is a pond called Echo Lake. After coming down from Flying Mountain, Laurie and I jumped in the lake. The water was brisk, but it felt good to get the sweat off. The beach is nice white sand. There are changing rooms and a place to wash sand off of your feet.

After our swim, we ate lunch at the Bear Brook picnic area. This is one of two picnic areas we utilized in the park, the other Fabbri near Thunder Hole. As we were finishing lunch the sky got dark and it started to rain, we went back to our tent for a couple of hours.

When we emerged from out hiatus we went off to Jordan Pond House again. This time for "supper". Jordan Pond House is world famous for "popovers". They are bread dough shaped like a muffin. They are very airy with very little inside. They are served warm with butter and jam. Not exactly a traditional supper but getting them was on the "to do"list and we were running out of time.

Popover

After our snack we walked to another bridge, my favorite, Cobblestone Bridge. We hung out there a while taking in some Gatorade

After our walk to Cobblestone Bridge we had 90 minutes to kill before dark. We went to Bar Harbor to get our obligatory ice cream cone. I got White Macadamia Nut Coconut. At best, it was average.

Lastly, we drove to Sand Beach for a "Stars Over Sand Beach" ranger program. There were a lot people because of the Night Sky Festival. The sky cleared enough to see some of the constellations. After it was over we went back to camp.

Friday-

If you read all of that and thought we did a lot on Thursday, then you are going to love Friday.

We got up early on Friday so I could go hiking. There are a couple of scary trails in the park that go straight up cliff faces. One of them is The Beehive. It is a 500 foot mountain with a sheer cliff facing east. A trail builder drilled iron rungs into the rock for use as ladders and hand holds. Because he did this, adventurers can hike up a cliff instead of rock climb. It is not recommended for those with a fear of heights because you will be hiking up the side of a cliff.

This is the cliff on Beehive

Laurie couldn't hike The Beehive because she had massive blisters between her toes. I planned on getting up, hiking, and driving back to her. Instead she got up with me. She dropped me off at the trailhead near Sand Beach and hung out by Thunder Hole a mile down the road. This added the same mile to my hike, but I got to walk along the beautiful Ocean Path.

Iron rungs to be used as a ladder

A shelf to walk along the cliff

A ladder above me

I'm not one for selfies, but I liked the sign

Like I said the path goes up a cliff. It starts out as a rough trail until you reach the cliff face in about five minutes. Then you climb up and over rock slabs. In precarious places the iron hand holds and ladders are the only way up.

Once on top, I made it over the summit to an overlook of The Bowl. This is a very pretty mountain lake completely surrounded by rounded peaks. It was very pretty. I looked at the lake and came down the backside of the mountain. Going down the Beehive Trail IS NOT an option. From the bottom I walked to Thunder Hole via Ocean Path.

The Bowl, just past Beehive summit

After my hike, Laurie and I drove back up Cadillac Mountain. There is a Hawk Watch there from 9-1 everyday in the fall. This is just like the Hawk Watch I go to at Wachusett every year. The only difference is the main species. At Wachusett, you are mostly going to see Broad Winged Hawks. On Cadillac the main species are Kestrels and Sharp Shinned. We sat with all the birders for a couple of hours. We had the perfect weather for hawk migration (north wind to push them south and sunny weather so they can ride thermals)

Birding was terrific. We saw many species including five bald eagles. We had a couple of hawks buzz us. I only got one good picture, it is the Northern Harrier below.

We left around 12:30 and drove to the Wild Gardens of Acadia. This is a little walk around gardens of wild native plants. It is at Sier de Mont Spring at the intersection of Rt 3 & Park Loop Road. It is pleasant and nice to learn about some native plants.

In early afternoon we went to Bar Harbor. We walked out to Bar Island looking for starfish and Sea Urchins at low tide. Unfortunately, any star fish in shallow enough water to see had already been picked up by seagulls before we got there.

The trees in the back are Bar Island.
This sandbar is completely submerged at all but the two
hours on each side of low tide

We had reservations for the 3:45 Lobster/ Seal Cruise on the Miss Samantha. After pulling out of port the captain picks up 4-5 lobster pots. They all had lobsters in them. Then the naturalist gives us a life history of lobsters. She explained how to sex them and measure them. I learned a lot.

You can win tickets for an upcoming boat ride if you
take a picture of yourself kissing a lobster
and put it on Instagram. Not really a big deal, right?
You wouldn't believe how many adults wouldn't
even touch it.

The second half of the trip goes along Egg Island. We could see Harbor Seals swimming in the water. The trip was definitely "touristy" but it was a lot of fun.

Black Gillemot

Harbor Seal

Lighthouse on Egg Rock

After the boat ride, I gave Bar Harbor ice cream another chance. I got Blueberry ice cream. Again, it was just okay.

From Bar Harbor we had a 45 minute drive to Ship Harbor Picnic Area. As part of the Acadia Night Sky Festival, there was a Star Party. A Star Party is exactly what it sounds like. A bunch of people with telescopes and astronomy nerds (count me as one) get together and look at the stars. Very generously, the public is welcome. The people with scopes happily let laymen view the stars and planets through them.

The path to the telescopes was illuminated in red lights. Red lights
will not ruin your night vision like white lights will.

That little dot left of center is Mars. Sure it is not really worthy
of being shown off. Still it was such a fun night, I wanted to
remember it.

We got there before dark. The sky was crystal clear. It was cool, cloudless, and low humidity. We could see four planets along the Elliptical (in order from l to r they were Mars,Saturn, Jupiter, and near the horizon, Venus). All of the guys with scopes had the planets locked in. We saw Saturn's rings and Jupiter with five of its moons multiple times.

After dark, the kind people put the scopes on other sky objects. We saw a couple star clusters with half a million stars each. We saw the Andromeda Galaxy, M22, and the double star in the Big Dipper. The Milky Way was out in full force. It was spectacular. As you can imagine, this was a very crowded event. We spent about 90 minutes there then headed back to our campsite for our last night under the stars.

Below are a few more random photos from the trip.

If you have any questions about a trip to Acadia/Bar Harbor feel free to ask in the comments. If I know the answer to your question(s) I'll gladly help you out.