In continuation of our zeal to see as many National Park Service sites<\/a> as possible (and building upon our cancellation stamp and map pins collections) combined with our efforts in getting-to-know our new Yankee home base, we made the short trek up the coast to spectacular Acadia National Park<\/a>! With superlatives including the only national park in New England and the oldest one east of the Mississippi River, Acadia certainly did not disappoint and is now near the top of our list of all-time favorite National Park Service sites! The breathtakingly diverse Acadia National Park comprises magnificent rocky shorelines, majestic mountains, picturesque woodlands, and pristine lakes and ponds. Here are a few highlights from our adventures!<\/p>\n

Arrival at Mount Desert Island<\/h5>\n

Acadia National Park is located just 4-5 hours north of Boston, in the “Down East” region of Maine. The bulk of its 47 thousand acres sprawls across Mount Desert Island<\/a> (the rest lies on Isle au Haut and Schoodic Peninsula). Originally named “L’\u00eele des Monts D\u00e9serts” or “Island of the Bare Mountains” by French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1604, Mount Desert Island has a modern-day pronunciation that is under much debate. Many Maineiacs retain the French fashion of stressing the second syllable (though with a different tone) and say “de-ZERT” (d\u0259\u02c8z\u0259rt), much like the noun of “sweet course eaten at the end of a meal” or the verb of “to abandon, fail, or run away.” Others pronounce it according to the English pronunciation and say “DEH-zert” (\u02c8dez\u0259rt), much like the noun of a “dry and barren area of land”; the latter pronunciation is often used by visitors, too, purely because of the spelling. You’ll find that the border between park grounds and commercial areas are blurred, so you’ll never be too far from creature comforts while at Acadia.<\/p>\n

Sunrise over Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse<\/h5>\n

Ancient glaciers carved out the fjord of Somes Sound which divides Mount Desert Island into two lobes: a popular eastern side drawing over 3 million tourists a year, and a more undisturbed western side often referred to as the “quiet side” of the island. At the southern tip of the quiet side, we awoke in the wee hours and scrambled across the rocky shoreline to relish in the first morning light at the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. If you learned about “signature” signals of lighthouses from our Nauset Light blog post<\/a>, you’ll be interested to know that Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse’s signature signal is red light occulting every four seconds (three seconds red; one second off). If you’re a photographer in search of spectacular sunrise snaps, please note that the accessible cliffs are to the east of the lighthouse; therefore, you’ll see the sun rising opposite to the lighthouse not over it. A more iconic Acadian sunrise may be Cadillac Mountain (later in this post) though you’ll have to share it with considerably more visitors than at Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. <\/p>\n

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Ship Harbor Trail on the Quiet Side of Mount Desert Island<\/h5>\n

Also on the quiet side of MDI, we stumbled upon a fantastic 1.3 mile trail that was a real gem. The Ship Harbor Trail was a pleasant, easy, fairly level walk (even Mimi could do it; see video<\/a> below) that took us through rapid changes in scenery, from roadside through pine forest, suddenly opening up into a peaceful cove of pink granite, and then to rocky coastline and the wide open blue ocean. Along the way, every section had a great deal to explore, including lush vegetation and wildlife, tide pools in the granite crevices, and panoramic vistas of trees, rocks, and water, in an intimate setting. As an alternative, you may also choose to add on the Wonderland Trail to the same trek; it is an equally easy hike of similar distance that is just half a mile east of the Ship Harbor Trail with similar views and terrain. <\/p>\n