June 2nd

Once I set the dates for my trip and knew I was heading south first, the last full day of my trip would be my first ever visit to Acadia National Park. A wealthy Bostonian George Dorr purchased the land and donated it to the federal government. It became the first Eastern National Park in 1919, one hundred years ago. The park shares Mount Desert Island with the town of Bar Harbor (no “r’s” required to pronounce!).

I got off to a slow start. The visitor center is closed and I couldn’t get the handy park brochure (later when I picked one up at a nature center, I learned that the visitor center has been in the process of being updated since the fall and is supposed to open this month). Also, it was extremely foggy in the morning – when I drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point within sight of the Atlantic Ocean on the entire Eastern seaboard, I could see nothing.

I went for a nice hike around Jordan Pond, the sun came out and a return trip to Cadillac yielded a full panorama of views – the town, the little islands in the harbor, Eagle Lake, hills and rock formations with climbers. I walked on Sand Beach and hiked the Ocean Trail to Otter Point along the rocky coast of Maine that brought back fond memories of my day on the Oregon coast 6 weeks ago. I ended the day with a halibut dinner with an ocean view.

The song of the day is “Acadia Waltz”, written by a local group Kelly Farm in honor of the centennial of the only national park in New England. And a bonus song, the Beatles’ “The Night Before”, since this is the night before I finally return home!