Goodbye Acadia National Park

 

 

We left our hotel early this morning, because we had an important date!  Timmy and Mary (and Emily too) were meeting us for lunch in Dover, NH, about 4 hours away.

On the way, we got treated to the early light, and even the highway looked pretty with the fall colors at their peak.  

 

But important people were expecting us! so we rushed out to meet these two lovely people.....

This trip gave me wanderlust....  I had forgotten how much I enjoy discovering new sights....  I'll start planning our next adventure as soon as I get home!

I am standing at the edge of a precipice!

I have a problem, I admit it.  If a trail is called "the precipice", it makes it almost impossible for me  not to want to do it!  And so I did!  (and since I'm blogging about it, I obviously survived.....).

But let's start at the beginning:  in the last three days, the fall colors in Acadia National park have gone from pretty to spectacular.  And with the bright blue skies we have been blessed with the entire time, it is impossible to look anywhere and not go ooohhhh and ahhhh! 

So we made the most of our last day of fall peeping and started with a short walk to the only sandy beach on the island - appropriately named "sand beach".  It is the only one, but it makes up for it by being extra pretty!

And yes, even early in the morning, one person was swimming!  Must have been chilly!  I did not join him because I did not have a bathing suit and I wanted to go hiking

 (at least that's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it!).

The beach also provided a great view of Champlain mountain, my next goal for the day!

Joe dropped me off at the trail head, and went on to take pretty pictures of leaves, sights and flowers (more about that later)  The precipice trail goes up - straight up! 978 feet. 

It's starts with a scramble, but then goes up the cliff through a series of rungs in the cliff and also handrails in the really narrow scary parts. 

Bottom line- it's not nearly as bad as it looks, but not for the faint of hearts (or quads!).  I just loved it!!!!  and this time, there were no 4 year old at the top....  (you have to be tall enough to reach the rungs and handrails, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that at 5'2", there was only 1 place where I had a hard time reaching. ).  One young woman told me - as I was passing her - "wow! you are in good shape!"- strongly implying the "for your age".  She is lucky I did not push her off the cliff...😂

The views are of course spectacular the whole way up AND down.  I would love to do this one again someday!

Meanwhile, Joe went to the Acadia wild garden, and tookpictures of flowers and sights (pictures of flowers at the bottom of blog).

We then went on the explore "the quieter side of Acadia" - which is the west side of the island.  We first stopped for "lunch-with -a-view" at Upper Deck in South West.  For a change, we had crab instead of lobster..... 

and then we meandered around, stopping at ponds and other interesting features.  The little beach at Long pond was charming (and is quiet and used by a lot of the locals). 
At the Long pond, the trail head indicated that it was only 1 miles to the top of Beech mountain - so I could not resist and had to go there. While not nearly as tough as the morning hike, it was a tough climb after out big lunch.  At the top is a cool fire tower which provides yet another great view.

We continued on, stopping here and there to view the sights:  this side of the island is not as dramatic as the east side, but still very pretty.

 

Then we went to Bass Harbor to see the most photographed lighthouse in the US!  It is a nice lighthouse, but it was the only place on the west side that was crowded, and parking was just impossible (I just jumped out of the car, walked down, took a quick picture and we turned around.)  It's a pretty lighthouse - but it's hard to explain why it is so popular compared to all the other sights around.....

We drove back through real villages where real people live...  no tourists here, even though the ocean and the ponds are ever present.  

We did not want to deal with going to town for dinner, so got take out from the restaurant next door, which happens to be a steakhouse.....  Still, could not just have steak!  so had some filet mignon and scallops.  It was easy and satisfying.

Tomorrow, we are going for different type of ooooh and aaahhhh...  meeting Emily, Timmy and Mary in Dover and then going on to Hooksett!

Below are some more picture of today - particularly flowersand foliage.