Acadia National Park – Part II
Saturday, September 28
National Park Day
Saturday happened to be National Park Day, which meant entrance into the park was free, and it was a little more crowded than it had been the other days. Luckily the crowds didn’t affect our day too much. We started our day off with oatmeal, and then stuffed all our camping gear into the rental car. Luckily most of the stuff was dry since it had that extra day to air out, so packing up wasn’t too bad.
We made our way to the Precipice trailhead where we proceeded to take the 1 mile ‘hike’ straight up the mountainside. This trail is referred to as one of the ‘iron rung trails’ which basically means it has several locations where they have installed iron rungs to allow non rock climbers like ourselves to climb up. Overall the hike was really cool, and definitely unique. It was a hard hike, but never did I feel like I was risking my life. The views were gorgeous, and every few steps we found ourselves looking off into scenic vistas. If you don’t have a fear of heights I would definitely recommend. (And please make sure you go up the Precipice trail and down one of the other routes, I was surprised and upset at the handful of people we had to squeeze past who were attempting to go down the rung portion of the trail.) One thing that made this hike extra memorable was that while we were going up we kept passing back and forth and chatting with another couple climbing the trail, so naturally we offered to take each other’s pictures once we reached the top. As it turns out when the guy handed me his phone he told me “leave it on video, I have a surprise” and they got engaged at the top! That was a fun experience to be a part of – even if we had only met them that morning.
After our hike the day before, we were really dreading the hike down, but today’s down hike was relatively easy, and we were surprised at how quickly the decent went by. We finished the hike relatively early in the day, so we decided to make the 1 hour drive to the south side of the Island to see the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. We made a few stops along the way for lunch in Southwest Harbor and for a few photos of Echo Lake. The lighthouse experience was kind of lame, and the parking lot was very small so we had to wait for people to leave before we could actually park. It’s a working lighthouse so it’s fenced off, and you are too close to it to get a good view of it. There is a little trail off to the side where you can attempt to get the scenic picture you see if you google the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. I don’t know if our timing was off, but I just couldn’t get far enough off the coast to get a view of the lighthouse without trees blocking it.
Next we made our way back into Bar Harbor where we checked into our hotel (Acadia Inn) and treated ourselves to some much needed showers. For dinner we took the shuttle into the main/tourist part of town (Village Green) and found a restaurant, Café This Way, that had a decent amount of vegetarian options instead of just seafood. We did a little wandering and shopping in town before calling it a day.
Sunday, September 29
Bike Day
After reading reviews about the carriage roads, there was no way we weren’t going to bike them, so Sunday we rented bikes for the day. We had a little trouble with my seat post falling 30 minutes into the ride, and quickly learned our lesson for next time: bring your own multi tool even when you are renting bikes. After asking a dozen people for an Allen wrench, it wasn’t until we came across a guided bike tour that we finally found someone that actually had some tools so I could fix my seat height. Once we got the bike situation settled, riding through the carriage roads was a lot of fun. The trails were wooded with random glimpses of lakes or vistas. After crossing several bridges, we decided to alter our route such that we went by as many bridges as we could. But in doing so we accidentally found ourselves in a no bike zone and had to walk our bikes for a little bit until we were free of the area. There was no way we were going to turn around and go back up the hill we had just sped down!
For lunch we stopped at the Jordan Pond House for their famous popovers. It was a little chilly outside, so we opted for the shorter 45 minute wait for indoor seating – which still had an excellent view of Jordan Lake. We didn’t really know what to expect of the popovers, so we were pleasantly surprised when the waiter brought a basket of giant airy yet doughy rolls to our table and told us to pick one and she’d come back later for us to choose another. The popovers went perfect with our teas and together they did an excellent job of warming us up. To satisfy our appetite we also split a delicious vegetarian risotto.
After lunch we opted to take the ‘difficult’ route back to Bar Harbor. This included a very long lovely climb up the side of the mountain; the signs said we were only going ‘around the mountain’ – liars, that elevation gain was no joke! And then of course we had to double back down to detour to one of the bridges just off our trail. I think there were only two that we missed, at least according to the map the bike shop gave us. The views were well worth the climb, and although the downhill coast didn’t seem to last nearly long enough to match all that uphill climbing we had done, it was a very nice end to our ride.
By the time we made it back to the hotel and cleaned ourselves up it was pretty late, so we only had enough time to go into town for dinner. Andrew had a vegetarian Shepard’s pie and I finally ordered myself some lobster, ‘when in Maine’ right? I will admit I only ordered a lobster roll, for one because they are way cheaper, but mostly because I don’t actually know how to eat a lobster when it’s served in the shell.
Sunday, September 29
Last Day
For our last day at Acadia, we decided to go check out Thunder Hole again, and see if it would be a little more active. It was. I got soaked. And of the 30 some odd people there with their cameras out, somehow no one captured a picture of me getting hit straight on with that ocean spray as the guy next to me crouched behind me for cover. If only I had left my phone video recording for 5 more seconds I would have captured it, but alas, that was not the case. We did a final loop along Park Loop Road as we made our exit of the national park.
For the drive back to Portland, we again decided to take a more leisurely scenic route along Highway 1. We stopped to stretch our legs and eat lunch in Camden, where we found a small waterfall as well. There were several cutesy towns along the road, that all seemed to be full of tourist, which is still kind of baffling to me, but that didn’t keep us from stopping to check some of them out. Our longest stop was at the Breakwater Lighthouse, which had a lighthouse at the end of the – you guessed it – breakwater. It was probably a mile trek out there, and while there wasn’t a whole lot to see, it was pretty cool. Another major detour we made was to stop at the Giant’s Stairs in Harpswell, which had a lot of really cool rock formations. It even came complete with a giant gift shop at the end of the peninsula referred to as “Land’s End”.
For dinner we met up with one of my high school friends who moved out there. We enjoyed food and beer at Sea Dog Brewery. It was great to catch up with him, and after dinner he treated us to some local gelato from the Gelato Fiasco!
Our plane left Tuesday morning, so before leaving we decided to make our way over to the Portland Head Light house for sunrise. Our hopes of getting to see one last gorgeous vista before leaving were washed away. A storm had come in that morning so it was too dark and cloudy to see much of anything.
Overall it was an amazing trip. Everything was just absolutely gorgeous, and although it was a little colder than we were anticipating, the weather did make for perfect hiking.
Budget
If anyone is interested in planning a trip out there and is curious what to budget for, here’s what we ended up spending on ours:
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