Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park is located on Mount Desert Island in Maine. I know…Who goes to Maine in November? We did and we had fabulous weather. We had lots of sunshine and mild temperatures. Best of all, we had the place to ourselves. We stayed in the little town called Bar Harbor, but this area shuts down in mid-October. Most hotels, restaurants and shops had signs on their front doors saying “Closed for the Season - See you in June”. Bar Harbor hosts 150+ cruise ships each summer, so it is usually super crowded, but it was like a cute little ghost town for us. In the national park, we took some very popular hikes which are usually very crowded, but we only saw a few people. It was great.

On day one, we focused on the east side of the island and drove the Park Loop Road to visit Thunder Hole, Sand Beach, and took a hike to the top of Gorham Mountain. Thunder Hole is a weird geologic phenomenon where the sea water goes into an underwater cave as the tide comes in and creates a loud percussion boom. This only happens twice a day, so we missed the boom, but it was still worth seeing. Sand Beach was beautifully desolate and the Gorham hike gave us some awesome views. We laughed at the altitude at the Gorham summit… 525 feet! I guess that is a respectable height from sea level, but compared to Colorado peaks it was a little embarrassing.

On day two, we drove to the west side of the island and hiked the Ship Harbor trail and visited the historic Bass Harbor Lighthouse. The Ship Harbor trail was so perfect. The trail went along a natural harbor which is way too small for a modern ship or even a large boat. We climbed rock cliffs above the water, walked on rock beaches at the water’s edge and then the trail went into the forest where some parts were elevated on wooden logs to protect the marsh. The weather was chilly, but so sunny.