Acadia National Park is the first national park east of the Mississippi River and it is located way up in Maine. Taking up a large portion of Mt. Desert Island and also oozing out onto other smaller islands and bits of the mainland, the park is more expansive than you at first realize. We were there in October right at the end of the season and it was simplistic beauty. The weather hadn’t cooperated too well before our arrival so a lot of the leaves blew off the trees before they could change and fall gracefully but there was still plenty of color to keep us from being disappointed.
The area is home to a large variety of animals ranging from chipmunk up to large moose and bear. We only saw chipmunks, deer, and birds while we were there and I’ll say we were half relieved and half disappointed. Ironically we were staying on White Tail Lane and weren’t disappointed with the number of deer we saw crossing the drive.
One thing you must do is go up to the top of Cadillac Mountain to watch the sunrise. It will be cold and windy so come prepared. Given it’s altitude and easterly location, Cadillac Mountain sees the sunrise before any other location in the United States. If you’re wondering…yes, Cadillac Mountain and the car brand both get their name from the same place. There is a plaque at the top detailing the story. Many other wonders await throughout the park such as the carriage trails, Eagle Lake, Thunder hole, too many for me to go into detail here.
Thunder hole wasn’t very thunderous while we were there but on a whim we decided to head over to Schoodic Point which is across Frenchmen Bay on the Mainland. It was well worth the drive. The weather was misty and dreary but we thought we’d take our chances to see what we could anyway. Just before sunset the skies cleared and we were treated to a beautiful sunset as the surf pounded along the coast. There also are supposed to be an extraordinarily large variety of birds in this area but sadly for us the weather kept most of them in their nests. We highly recommend making the drive over to the peninsula.
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