National Park # 17: Acadia

If you’ve read the children’s book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, you know that she was called the Lupine Lady who sprinkled lupine seeds all around Maine that bloomed in June. Well, when we were reading it to the kids in the winter, they asked if we could go see the lupines in June. We thought it was a great idea, but pushed it to July so we could go over Fourth of July.

Planning for the trip was much different than our previous west coast camping trips. Acadia campgrounds aren’t operational year round and they only start taking reservations two months in advance of your dates. This was wild for us to think about because many places we’ve been, such as Yosemite, open up six months in advance and fill up within a day or less. We also no longer had a minivan or truck to lug all our gear, so we had to think about the best way to use our midsize SUV to carry everything for camping plus four bicycles as they are a new addition to the camping setup. We also contemplated bringing our dog as they are many dog friendly hikes, but with him turning 13 on July 4th, we predicted he’d struggle with the volume of hikes and could prevent us from doing some unique ladder rung hikes that Acadia boasts.

Acadia is the only national park in the northeast United States, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as the northeast was developed by Europeans first and many of the national-park-worthy sites were developed before the concept was envisioned. However, Acadia became an early national park with the secret help of John Rockefeller, who bought up land around Mount Desert Island and donated it all back to the US Government to create Acadia. The park maps shows a unique outline that runs between public and private lands.

Getting to Acadia is no easy task. We had no idea how “tall” Maine was and how much traffic we’d encounter driving through New England. I know people give Los Angeles a hard time for their traffic, but these two lane highways in New England were jammed pack with people seeking mountains and/or beaches. We departed Saturday morning at 7:30 AM and eventually made it to our campground around 7:00 PM. The day also involved a 90 minute visit with friends near Kennebunkport and a grocery shopping trip to load up on supplies.

Acadia has four major campgrounds scattered across their park. Blackwoods is the largest and most central. It has over 250 sites and is a ten minute drive or 15 minute shuttle bus to the town of Bar Harbor. Some other campgrounds are more remote and one is on an island, so there is a really cool blend of camping options for you to choose. The campsites were spaced out and had plenty of room to set up the tent and other gear we brought. It wasn’t an issue for us, but only one car is allowed at each campsite with overflow parking nearby.

We love a campground when it becomes the launching point for an adventure and Blackwoods has a couple. You can hike the South Ridge Trail to Cadillac Mountain or take a short walk down to the beach. On our first full day, we knew we needed to hike and get out the energy that was stored in the long car ride from the day prior. It was foggy with rain forecasted for the afternoon, so we put on our rain coats and started hiking. The first half of the 4.2 miles to the top of the mountain was through a rocky, wooded, and MUDDY trail. We had a few wooden plank walkways that were slippery due to the rain and moisture, but we all made it across them without any issues. As we got a few miles in, we got into the alpine zone and started following the Bates Cairns that helped us calibrate our direction in the fog. Leona actually led the hike at this point and really set the pace for us to keep moving to the top. Once we hit the summit, it was still drizzling and foggy, but we were greeted with a lot of other visitors, as there is a road and parking lot at the top. It’s always a fun experience to be at a summit with a mix of hikers and people who came via car.

The rain came down a bit heavier during the return hike, but morale was good and we made good time. It made me think of the book There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather, a parenting book about being prepared, but having an open mind… and the right gear. Now that the kids are older, we can actually find outdoor clothes that fit them- boots, rain pants, jackets, etc.

Another big adventure was exploring the carriage roads of Acadia via bicycles, which have been preserved as hiking and biking paths around the park. We were able to pack our bikes (3 on a rack and one in the trunk) to explore the roads and give the kids more freedom around the campgrounds so they could explore with new friends. We took an eight mile trip around Jordan Pond that also had us bike past Eagle Lake and Bubble Pond. The two major sites were seeing some people taking rides with horse drawn carriages and when Mary noticed rustling in a tree near the edge of the road and saw a porcupine nibbling on some food. We immediately pulled over to get a better look. Mary had the girls getting pretty close, but I was more cautious. One of us has to be….

Other cool things we got to do:

-We planned around July 4th holiday for the extra vacation day, but didn’t think about the great programming Bar Harbor would have. On July 4th, the town hosted a wild blueberry pancake breakfast, a small town parade and maker’s fair, and a seafood fest with lobster rolls, clam rolls, and other goodies. Being so close to Bar Harbor, we were able to take an early bus in and then be back at the campsite for a few hours before we came back into town for the evening’s fireworks, which was a really spectacular show.

-A hike recommended to us by our sister-in-law was the Beehive hike – a short 1.4 mile hike which was more of a scramble up some rock and metal ladder rungs. It was right along the coast and gave us some amazing views of the coastline and surround islands. After that we walked along the coast to Thunder Hole, where the waves crash into the rocky shoreline and capped it off with some time at the beach….and the ice cold water.

Quintessence of Acadia – each trip we all list what we felt were the most memorable moments.

Leona- I liked seeing the porcupine, biking with our new friends we made in the campground, and the fireworks 

Quincy- I like biking with new friends, who we actually are now our pen pals. (Real LIVE pen pals)

Mary- The Beehive Hike was great because it was quick and the girls were scrambling up past many grownups who were having a hard time. The views from the top on a clear day were also incredible.

Sean – The South Ridge Trail was pretty awesome as it had us hike through different environments (forest, exposed alpine, etc.) and had some really cool cairns to keep us in the right direction as we walked in the fog. Even though we didn’t see anything at the top due to the weather, it was a fun hike and I was impressed with how well the girls did in poor weather. We were able to have a great picnic of snacks at the summit.

All in all, Acadia was a great park and gave us vibes from the Olympic Peninsula of Olympic National Park. If we go back, we’ll have to check out another campground to see how the vibe changes outside of the high traffic areas.

Park #17 in the books.