Day 11: Acadia National Park

Whoops, I guess I finally hit the wall! 😆 I was doing so great keeping this updated everyday, but then I was up until after midnight on Tuesday night and didn’t have it in me to post the next morning.

Picking up where I left off…

So Tuesday was our 3rd full day in Acadia.

Highlights!

* Started the day, as usual, with tea on the deck.

The big plan for the morning was to drive to the Schoodic Peninsula.

Schoodic Peninsula

* It was about 1 hour 8 minutes up to the peninsula, driving. It’s still part of Acadia National Park, but a more remote/secluded area off the main area of Mount Desert Island.

* Drove through little town of Winter Harbor on the way, then entered the park again at the Schoodic entrance.

* The Schoodic Peninsula doesn’t have as many hiking trails (though it does have some). Our plan was mostly to drive the loop and stop at the various lookouts/stopping points and then have a picnic!

* First stop looked out at a calmer Bay Area.

* Just up the way was a “secret” spot called Raven’s Nest. The trail is not marked from the main road at all… I learned this is because the National Park Service deemed it to be too dangerous to encourage visitors to stop!

The rocks slant down at a steep angle and I imagine that it is extremely slippery when wet. It’s a LONG ways down into sharp rocks and waves below. My guess is that too many dumb people tried to climb out there and fell/got injured!

* From around the other side:

* Next stop was a huge rocky beach area. It was low tide and interesting to see the seaweed and stuff that was washed up (normally all covered during high tide, I’m sure).

This whole part of the park (Schoodic Peninsula) is generally way less crowded with people (it’s farther away).

* Schoodic Point was the next stop. This did have a few more people milling around on the rocks. It’s the farthest southern point on the peninsula.

* There was a cove in the rocks where some bigger waves were crashing in sometimes. Ethan LOVED this spot. Stood and watched for a really, really long time.

* Asher wanted to play around with some photos in portrait mode.

He took mine:

And then I took his. 🙂

* Stopped by the Schoodic Institute, a research center/visitor center area. It was designed by an architect friend of Rockefeller’s many years ago.

* Checked out the exhibits

* Next up… LUNCH!! All the fresh air works up an appetite.

Drove down the loop until we found a cool picnic spot on some rocks.

* post lunch- a little relaxation.

After lunch we finished the driving loop and then headed back to Mount Desert Island. We went straight to the Southwest Harbor area.

I had two shorter hikes on my list I really wanted to get in that afternoon.

Wonderland Trail

* After driving the 1 1/2 hours back over and down to the trailhead, we started the hike.

* The cool thing here were the big tide pools and large flat rocks. It was just really a beautiful spot.

Pretty empty in the afternoon, too. We felt very fortunate that for a “busy” park, we found tons of solitude on our hikes.

The boys found lots to look at.

Asher found a couple (dead) crabs…

* The tide started to come in. The boys were sliding on the rocks….

I really loved this short hike and area. Definitely recommend this one. Easy and quick for people of all ages to enjoy. (Would be a good one for people with younger kids along.)

Ship Harbor Trail

* The next hike was just up the road. Ship Harbor Trail.

* This hike was cool because it had a ton of variety. Rocks, water, trees, ocean, a calm bay, and also a beautiful mossy landscape on the interior part.

* We spent a long time on this little rocky peninsula where the boys skipped MORE rocks. They just love to do this. It was also empty. Whole place to ourselves!

This was a fabulous trail!!!

* Mossy second half… vibrant green.

* It was evening by the time we finished our hikes, so we went back into Bar Harbor for dinner. Ivan wanted to try the Mexican restaurant in town.

Poor Ivan. He just never learns.

Mexican restaurants are just not (at least not in our experience) ever any good when they are located in places that have a practically nonexistent Mexican population.

This was probably the least authentic Mexican food we have ever had. (I might bump it to second place, after the truly terrible Mexican food my sister and I once had in Ireland.)

This place wasn’t “bad”… I mean, the food was edible and everything. It just was not “good”, either. And most definitely not authentic. Or particularly flavorful.

Ivan was disappointed. 😂😆

I told him… stop expecting good Mexican food in places like this!!

I think he was the only actual Mexican I’ve seen in our entire week up here in Maine. Lol!! (definitely no Mexicans running this restaurant either.)

Another awesome day!!! The beauty of this park is astounding.

Daily gratitude: I am grateful for National parks! And for all the rangers, etc that keep them beautiful for us.