Bangor and Bar Harbor, ME: June 26-28, 2021 - Acadia

It was time to put in some proper effort to see a national park.

I had never been to the great state of Maine before this trip, and since it's all the way tucked up in that far northeast corner there, I figured I better hit all the major points of interest in one fell swoop, because it'd be difficult to string it in to any other trip in the future.  To that end, I decided to see the state's only national park, the capital, and the largest city.  All the bucket lists at once, baby!

I had every intention of exploring Bangor, the city I flew into, but my first major point of interest, the waterfront, was at the very hour of my arrival overrun with some godforsaken outdoor music festival, meaning that not only was every parking space taken, and not only was the area overrun with people, but to even walk into the area, you had to pay for a ticket.  Nuh-uh.

So, frustratedly, I abandoned that idea, thinking I might see it on the swing back through in a few days' time.  Instead, I sallied forth to Bar Harbor, an idyllic seaside cottage town occupying the same island that Acadia National Park lays claim to on the coast of Maine.

By the way, the island is called Mt. Desert Island.  That is three types of landscapes.  Guys, pick one.

It was already early evening by the time I arrived, so I took just a quick stroll around the town and to the land bridge to Bar Island, but not to the island itself:

Bar Island's land bridge is one of those jobbers that appears and disappears with the tide, forming a crossable path only within 90 minutes on either side of high tide.  They even have signs sarcastically warning you that if you get stuck over on that island, it's your own dumb fault, and water taxis are expensive.  Since it was already a bit after that evening's high tide, I decided to wait until the next morning to explore the island properly.

That was about it for the evening, since my next morning was going to be absurdly early - Acadia is one of the easternmost points in the continental U.S., and one popular thing to do is watch the sunrise from Cadillac Mountain, a 15 or so minute drive from Bar Harbor.  How popular, you ask?  Well, parking is limited, and while they used to just advise that you arrive early to ensure a spot, they now sell $6 tickets, good for the sunrise only, to limit the crowds, and those tickets (which go on sale 10:00 AM two days in advance) sell out in about three minutes.

I had been fortunate enough to snag one of these tickets Friday morning before my trip, so that Sunday - which was to be my only full day in the park - I prepared to summit that mountain and watch the glorious sunrise over the bay.  Given Maine's position in the time zone, that sunrise was to be at about 4:51 A.M., meaning I would awake at about 3:30 A.M. just to be sure I made it in time.  By comparison, in Louisville, on the summer solstice just a week earlier, the sunrise had been at 6:19 A.M.

So with all that extra effort, was the sunrise worth it?  Well, see for yourself!

...so, no.

Sadly, the weather was so terrible as to completely obscure the sunrise or really anything more than 10 feet in front of your head.  Cadillac Mountain's summit was in the grip of a cloud that morning, and it wasn't in the mood to let go.  All that effort was, genuinely, for nothing.

On the way down (I left just after the moment of sunrise, distraught), I did manage to get a serviceable semblance of what the view could have been:

As you can see, the full view is pretty breathtaking.  Go Google "Acadia sunrise" and you'll get an even better idea.

I returned to the hotel and sat around, waiting for the hotel breakfast to open because that's how early it still was.  While sitting around, I realized that my 90 minute Bar Island window was going to begin before breakfast did, so I decided to just go ahead and get that squared away.

A good length for a pre-breakfast hike.  I swung by the breakfast building on my way back to the hotel, then prepped for my mid-morning activities.  Mainly, what I had on my agenda was Jordan Pond, but was also interested in adding Eagle Lake if I could.

The fog still hung in the air, eliminating the top half of the view all around the pond:

This is a great hike, though, and one you'd have to do if you went to Acadia.  The path runs right alongside the pond basically the whole way around:

At one point, I came upon the split off for the Bubble trail, which I'd heard good things about.  I set off on it:

Yeah no.  How on Earth do you call that a trail?  That is the aftermath of an avalanche.

I returned to lake level:

and finished out the loop.

With plenty of morning still left, I headed to Eagle Lake:

Those things in the distance?  Yes, those are orange traffic cones.

They had closed the lake.  They had CLOSED the LAKE.  How is that even possible?  They set up road cones to CLOSE a LAKE.  Another destination in the garbage.

I made another stop in town to have lunch and rest a bit before journeying to a southern jut of the island to see a handful of points of interest all collected together.  First, the Schooner Head overlook, which I'd found on some "hidden gems of Acadia" type listicle.  This was a good find!  And it was the first of the quintessential Maine coastline views that the park is so well known for:

with those waves crashing ashore.

Next, I went to Sand Beach.  You may notice that the coastline pictured above is very rocky and cliff-y, and this is typical of most of the Maine coast.  Sand Beach is, therefore, a big draw because it is one of the few places (and I think the largest of those places) that looks like a typical beach:

Next, I walked up along the path just outside of the beach to view it from up above:

This next section was probably the best in terms of views.  The hike went from here along the coastline cliffs, combining that unusual pinkish rock with the vast sea to create a space where every direction was a stunning view.

I made it as far as Thunder Hole, a thoroughly underwhelming area where the seawater crashes against a crack in the rocks to make a moderate "thump thump" sound:

I returned to my car then drove back past this point and on further to the southernmost tip of that section of the island, to a spot called Otter Point.

That was it for the afternoon session.  I returned to town and took another stroll, this time taking in more of the seaside and the main drag of town:

My big plan to cap off the Acadia portion of this trip was to journey to more or less the opposite corner of Mt. Desert Island to the Bass Head Lighthouse, where I'd capture its majesty over the backdrop of the sunset.  With said sun set to set at 8:21, I headed out at about 7:15 to make sure, with a 30 minute drive, that I'd make it in time.

And I did!  But that wasn't the x-factor that I had needed to consider.  Somehow, the parking lot for this area only has capacity for about 20 cars; this despite the fact that this lighthouse is one of the major draws of the island.  So of course, even with 45 minutes until sunset, the place was full.  Worse, the road for miles leading to it was very clear that there was to be no road parking anywhere.  The closest lot I could find, some trailhead a ways away, would have been too far to walk and make it in time.  Begrudgingly, after circling the area a few times, I gave up and returned to Bar Harbor.

It was infuriating.  I couldn't believe that both the sunrise and the sunset had been foiled for me, on this, my one full day in the park.  Sunset I could have tried again, had I been staying another night, but since sunrise required those tickets, there was no way to try it again the next morning before leaving.

Acadia is a great park.  Probably the coolest one I've visited so far (at least among those documented in this blog).  But they clearly are not equipped to handle the crowds.  Anything that involves a specific time to see an event is going to exclude a great many of those who want to see it, simply due to capacity limits that frankly don't have to be there.  It would not take much to expand the parking area of that lighthouse, and that's really all that needed to change.  And missing out on the two events I was most looking forward to before coming here certainly soured the mood as I packed up and headed for points west the next morning.

Perhaps I'll come back someday, though.  It's definitely a park you can return to again and again, even if you just see the same stuff, much less if you have sights to see that you missed out on the first time.  

And hopefully, when I do come back, I'll have better weather.