We camped in Acadia for four nights in the national park campground called Blackwoods. We arrived in the afternoon and took a hike to the nearby bay to get our first glimpse of the Atlantic. We discovered the tide here can change 10 to 12 feet, and the waves rushing into the coves in some spots can create dramatic spurts of water. We saw one called Thunder Hole – aptly named as we heard it from over one hundred yards away. Our campground didn’t have any electricity, so this would be a good test of our ability to camp off the grid. We ended the evening grilling fish and corn over a campfire.
Acadia park has over 40 miles of carriage roads built in the early 1900s. They were the vision of John D. Rockefeller Jr. who funded and oversaw their construction. Rockefeller had a strong desire to preserve the natural beauty of Acadia and to make the park accessible to visitors in a way that was harmonious with the landscape (in other words, no automobiles). The trails climb through the various valleys, mountains and around lakes and feature many beautiful stone bridges and gate houses. People can walk on them, ride horses or bike – which is what we did on our second day at the park. We rode nearly all the trails and marveled at the views. We had quite a workout going up and down the hills, so we enjoyed our steak and sweet potatoes on the campfire that night.
The next day we took a cruise in the morning out of Northeast Harbor led by a park ranger. We visited Cranberry island, an interesting fishing village, and went into the Somes Sound. We saw some amazing homes, great views of the mountains, interesting boats and even an eagle. After the cruise we enjoyed some delicious lobster rolls and walked around Bar Harbor.
The next day was a big hiking day! We hiked all the way up Cadillac mountain from the campground and back. Sophie and I both agree that this was one of the best hikes we have ever done in terms of interesting terrains and views. We hiked over 12 miles and climbed 1530 feet. It was foggy most of the way up giving the trail an ethereal feel. Much of the trail was on huge, smooth pink granite – almost as if it was paved. Cairns (stacked rocks) were used to mark the trail and in some places we could barely see the next one through the fog. When we finally reached the peak we were suddenly in the sun. We could see down the other side of the mountain to Bar Harbor and the bays. We found the marker for the highest point and made sure to get a picture there. Cadillac mountain is the highest mountain on the east coast north of Rio De Janeiro! We were pretty tired when we got back, but very proud of our accomplishment.
We really enjoyed Acadia National Park. We were also proud of ourselves for making it four nights and nearly five days in our camper without electricity – relying only on our battery. I had brought with a solar panel to recharge it, but it turned out useless as our campsite was under trees and it was cloudy and foggy over half the time. Our main objective was to keep our fridge running, so we cooked by headlamp at night, took showers with buckets of water heated with a tea kettle on the propane stove, and generally tried to avoid using the water pump and lights. It really wasn’t too bad – and now gives us confidence that we can camp off the grid for a few days here or there.
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