Living Our Dream

Farewell Visit to Acadia and Bar Harbor

Topsham, ME - Events of Wednesday, August 21, 2013

On Wednesday, which was our last day in the area, we took another drive around the loop road in Acadia National Park. We didn't have any particular destination in mind; but as we said before, everything looks different at different times of the day and at different levels of the tide, so we just wanted one last look at some of the beautiful scenes of the rocky coast in Acadia National Park.

Our first stop was at Sand beach, which is one of the most popular locations in the entire park. As usual, it was very crowded; but after making three very slow passes around the main parking lot, we finally found a space.

As crowded as the beach was the first time we were there, it looked even more crowded now because the first time we were there was near low tide. This time, it was near high tide, so a similar number of people were on a smaller beach.

Sand Beach near high tide

The beach is crowded, but the water isn't because the water temperature is only around 50ºF. All you could hear were little girls screeching with each wave.

No swimmers in view because of the cold water

From the far end of Sand Beach you can see a hill called The Beehive.

The Behive as seen from Sand Beach

There is a trail that goes to the top of The Beehive, and we could see hikers up there.

Hikers climbing to the summit of The Beehive

As we left Sand Beach, we stopped to admire the view south toward Otter Cliff.

Otter Cliff in the distance from Sand Beach

We drove along the loop road a little farther and found another parking space, so we stopped and walked along Ocean Path for a short distance and took several side excursions out onto the rocks to sit and watch the waves and to take photos.

Paul photographing more of the rocky coast

What Paul was photographing

Looking across Newport Cove toward Great Head

Janice and Dave had been checking out the bridges along the carriage roads, and they gave us a tip on a particularly picturesque one that had parking right by the bridge. Duck Brook Bridge was completed in 1929, and is interesting because it has both triple arches and turrets.

Margery in one of the turrets on Duck Brook Bridge

Margery at Duck Brook Bridge

Lowbush blueberries grow wild all over the area. Like so many other places in Acadia, there are lots of blueberry bushes at Duck Brook Bridge, but few blueberries. Late summer is blueberry season in Maine, but most of the bushes we have seen have been picked clean. However, we have seen one or two berries here and there like the one shown in the photo below.

Wild blueberry

Maine is well known for its wild blueberries and there are stands along the roads that sell them by the pint and by the quart. Wild blueberries are small - only about ¼ inch in diameter, and they have a more delicate flavor than the large, highbush blueberries that are commonly available.

As we said, we saw very few blueberries in the wild, so we stopped at a roadside stand and bought a pint early in our stay. Margery made a delicious blueberry sauce that we had on pancakes. The pancakes were delicious. We then tried some of the blueberry sauce that we had left from the pancakes on vanilla ice cream, and we liked the blueberries that way even better. We liked it so much, that we ended up buying two more quarts of blueberries during our stay.

Paul has been wanting to get some real, good New England clam chowder (or chowdah as the locals call it). The restaurants on Mount Desert Island in general and in Bar Harbor in particular cater to tourists and are on the expensive side, but Margery found a little tavern in Bar Harbor called the Thirsty Whale that got rave reviews for its chowder, so we headed there after we left Duck Brook Bridge.

We found a parking space on a side street not too far from the restaurant. It was low tide the first time we walked Shore Path, and we were curious to see the views at high tide. Since it was a short time after high tide when we got to Bar Harbor on this stop, we decided to walk part of Shore Path before we ate.

This time, not only did the view of Bald Porcupine Island have more water in the foreground, there were also a lot more boats moored in the harbor.

Bald Porcupine Island at high tide

Bald Porcupine Island several days prior at low tide

The water was all the way up to Balance Rock.

Balance Rock at high tide

Balance Rock several days prior at low tide

From Balance Rock, we retraced our steps to the beginning of Shore Path then made our way 3 or 4-blocks to the Thirsty Whale.

Thirsty Whale

Sandwiches and burgers range in price from about $6 to $9 and include one side. We each had one of their specials that included a fried haddock sandwich and a cup of clam chowder for $10.

Paul with his clam chowder and fish sandwich

The fish sandwich was good, but the coating could have a bit crispier. The chowder, however, was outstanding. It was loaded with clams and had lots of flavor. No wonder their chowder gets such good reviews.

After our lupper, we drove back to the motor home. Even though it was late afternoon, we squeezed in a few pre-departure chores after which we headed over to Janice and Dave's motor home to say our goodbyes before heading out the following morning. We'll tell you where we went in our next post.

Carriage Roads Revisited

Trenton, ME - Events of Monday, August 19, 2013

We saw some of the carriage roads of Acadia when we went on our ranger-led walk the week before. The walk also features a couple of the stone bridges that were built over the ravines and streams. However, since no two of the 17 bridges are the same, we were curious to see at least a couple more. The bridge that we were the most intrigued by was Cobblestone Bridge, which was the first bridge Rockefeller built. As the name suggests, Cobblestone Bridge is built mainly from cobblestones rather than from cut granite.

Although it would have been faster to get to Cobblestone Bridge by going down the western, two-way section of the loop road through the park, we decided to go down the eastern, one-way side of the loop for two reasons. First, the one-way section goes along the shore, which is more scenic; and two, we missed Schooner Head Overlook when we drove the loop road the previous Thursday. The turnoff for the overlook is about 50 feet before the entrance booths for the park. We were busy following the sign that said, "Pass holders use right lane" because we would be using our America the Beautiful Pass. Therefore, we missed the left turn to the overlook. Once we had passed it, we couldn't go back because that part of the loop is one way.

This time, we made the turn, parked and headed down the short trail to the rocks below for a better look at Schooner Head. Freeway was with us, and he made the trek, too.

Freeway on the trail to Schooner Head Overlook

View of Schooner Head (right) from the overlook

The dark spot at the left of the photo above is a cave. We happened to be at the overlook with people who had been there before, and they said you can walk into the cave at low tide or kayak in at high tide. The depth of the cave extends back to about the tree line to the left.

Cave near Schooner Head

And yes, that is a house at Schooner Head.

House at Schooner Head

Freeway tries out rock scrambling

One of the things we love about the rocky coast of Maine is the the way the appearance changes. The light and shadows on the rocks are different at different times of the day. Even the colors change. The shore looks different at high tide than it does at low. This was the first time we had seen the shore, either at Schoodic Peninsula or at Mount Desert Island, near high tide. As we sat on the rocks watching the waves, two people in a kayak paddled by.

Kayakers at Schooner Head

A short time later, a lobster boat rounded Schooner Head. He was checking his traps, some of which were right below where we were sitting. We watched him snag the line with a pole, pull in the trap and open it. Sometimes, he would throw a lobster or two into a container, and sometimes he would throw one that was too small overboard. He would then refill the bait holder inside the trap, close the lid and drop the trap back into the water.

Checking lobster traps

From Schooner Head, we made our way around the loop to a spot close to where we could easily access the carriage road and parked. Paul had mapped out a two-mile, carriage road loop that would take us past two bridges - the Stanley Brook Bridge and the one we really wanted to see, Cobblestone Bridge.

The carriage roads where we were walking are not part of the national park. They are on private property, but the property owners have granted access to the public. Because it is private property, there are slightly different rules. Bicycles are not permitted in this area, which means we didn't have to watch out to make sure we didn't get run over. Many of the residents apparently own horses because we did have to watch out for horse manure on the road. Because bicycles aren't permitted and because the area is a little out of the way, these carriage roads aren't nearly as crowded as the ones in the national park. We saw only two other couples on our entire two-mile walk.

With few other people, the carriage road was nice and quiet. We enjoyed walking past moss-covered hillsides with no sounds but the crunching of gravel under our feet.

Moss-covered hillside along the carriage road

Freeway got to enjoy the walk as well. He left a little manure, too, which we picked up - unlike the horse owners.

Freeway on the carriage road

As we learned on the ranger-led walk, Rockefeller liked to provide nice views where possible.

View of a meadow and pond from a bend in the road

Stanley Brook Bridge was only about half a mile from where we started. This bridge has an interesting apex along each top rail.

Stanley Brook Bridge

Completed in 1933

The Stanley Brook Bridge has three arches - one for the road, one for the brook (right) and one for a foot path.

Triple arches on Stanley Brook Bridge

At Margery's behest, Paul reluctantly bought a trail map when we were at Sieur de Monts a few days prior. He's glad she insisted, because we would have easily gotten lost without it. The carriage roads twist and turn, and there are lots of intersections, so it is easy to get confused as to where you are. In addition to showing all the hiking trails, the map we bought also shows all the carriage roads along with distances between intersections and locations of all the numbered sign posts and all the bridges. It was $5 well spent.

It was about a mile from Stanley Brook Bridge to Cobblestone Bridge. As we said, this bridge is built primarily of cobblestones, including the underside, which gives it a completely different look and texture than the cut stones of the other bridges.

Cobblestone Bridge

Cobblestone Bridge

View of Cobblestone Bridge looking upstream

Paul photographing Cobblestone bridge from a footbridge upstream

Cobblestone Bridge looking downstream from the footbridge

As we walked the carriage roads, Paul took a fancy to the many mushrooms and toadstools growing in the woods.

Some of the many mushrooms and toadstools

Freeway was a real trooper. We didn't know if he would be able to make it the entire two-mile walk or not, and we were prepared to carry him part way if necessary; but he had no problem. All he needed was a little water every now and then, and he was good to go. We thought he would sleep the rest of the evening when we got back to the motor home; but he had rested up during our drive back, and he was ready to play by the time we got there.

We had again made plans to go to lupper with Janice and Dave. This time, it was Jordan's Snack Bar a few miles up the road in Ellsworth. We headed there shortly after we got back from our sightseeing.

Jordan's Snack Bar

Inside seating is available, but we choose one of the shady picnic tables outside.

Dave, Janice, Paul and Margery at Jordan's Snack Bar

Jordan's has, among many other things, great burgers, so that's what we all had. Each couple also got an order of Jordan's hand-cut onion rings. The burgers were delicious - nice and juicy, lots of flavor and lots of cheese on the cheeseburgers. The onion rings were great, too - sweet and tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

We had a good time sitting and talking after we finished eating, and we eventually headed back to our respective RVs for the evening. Our remaining time in Bar Harbor is short, but we had more thing we wanted to do. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

Acadia National Park Loop Road

Trenton, ME - Events of Thursday, August 15, 2013

On Thursday, we finally got to drive the main part of the loop road in Acadia National Park. We were on the western part of the loop on Monday when we returned from our ranger-led walk, but we were especially looking forward to driving the eastern part that runs down along the shore.

As we learned from our friends, Janice and Dave, the park gets crowded, so we headed into the park relatively early. Janice and Dave also gave us an audio CD with a narrated tour of the loop road. It was very well done with lots of interesting facts. It also had precise driving distances to the next point of interest, directions for where to park, and instructions for when to pause and restart the CD.

The first major stop was at Sieur de Monts. Sieur de Monts was named for the Lieutenant Governor of New France in the early 1800s.

George B. Dorr, who was one of the wealthy summer residents of Mount Desert Island back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, built a springhouse at Sieur de Monts.

Springhouse at Sieur de Monts

George Dorr helped establish a corporation in 1901 for the purpose of preserving land on Mount Desert Island for public use. He is generally considered to be the father of Acadia National Park. By 1913, the corporation had acquired 6,000 acres that it offered to the Federal Government. President Woodrow Wilson created Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916; and in 1919, Congress passed a bill to create the first national park east of the Mississippi changing the name to Lafayette National Park. Dorr was named the first superintendent. The name was later changed to Acadia National Park. Acadia was the original name of the area that encompassed eastern Maine and the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

Also at Sieur de Monts is a nature center, the Abbe Museum of Native American culture and the Wild Gardens of Acadia. The garden has native plants including wildflowers, ferns and bog plants.

Margery in the Wild Gardens of Acadia

Bog plants

Our next stop was at Beaver Dam Pond. Beavers are fairly common in Acadia, and this pond is located near the road where visitors can see the dam and several beaver lodges. We didn't see any beavers because they are usually only active at dawn and dusk.

Beaver lodge at Beaver Dam Pond

At another overlook a little farther along, we could see one of the many lighthouses around Mount Desert Island. This one was located on Egg Rock. What a desolate place that must be in winter!

Egg Rock Lighthouse

Because the coast of Mount Desert Island is relatively young, there are few sandy beaches. Most beaches consist of gravel or larger cobbles. However, there is one location that is well protected where the current has deposited large quantities of sand. The sand is a combination of ground up rock and bits of shells. Sand Beach is a popular place for swimming, although most of the swimmers are quite young because the summertime water temperature averages only 50 to 55ºF.

Sand Beach

View of Sand Beach from above

This one of the most popular areas in the park because of the spectacular views of the coast. Consequently, it can be pretty crowded. People like to stop here and take folding chairs to the beach or out onto the rocks and just sit and watch the waves. Another popular activity at low tide is to scramble down over the rocks to look for sea life in the tidal pools.

This side of the loop road is one way, so in order to provide additional parking, parking is permitted in the right lane in some areas. Drivers in the right lane need to be aware they could round a bend and encounter a lane full of parked cars. Drivers in the left lane need to be careful, too, because everything can come to a screeching halt if someone in the left lane slows down to gawk or if someone stops to back into a parking place.

We found a parking space and walked along Shore Trail for a short distance.

View to the south toward Otter Point

Looking north toward Great Head Point

Sailboat rounding Great Head Point

Sailboats aren't the only boats in the waters around Mount Desert Island. We saw many lobster boats out checking their traps. Colorful buoys dot the water marking the location of traps. Each lobsterman has his own, unique combination of colors on his buoys to identify his traps, and each pattern is registered with the state.

Lobsterman checking traps

Our next stop was Thunder Hole. There is a narrow slot between the rocks, and the end of the slot is undercut to form a chamber that traps air. As waves rush in, the air gets compressed and sometimes escapes with a loud boom. Larger waves make for a bigger show because there tends to be more noise and because the water can sometimes spray quite high. The consensus seems to be the best time to see Thunder Hole is about two hours before high tide. We were there about two hours after low tide (four hours before high tide) with relatively calm seas, and we still got to hear a few muffled booms.

Thunder Hole - narrow slot between the rocks

Air chamber at the end of the slot

Compressed air escaping and blowing water back out of the chamber

Water draining from the chamber between waves

We continued our way around the loop with more beautiful ocean views. The road then begins to turn north to Jordan Pond where it also switches to two-way traffic.

Jordan Pond is named for the Jordan family who built a farmhouse nearby in 1847. In the 1870s, a restaurant called Jordan Pond House was built at the south end of Jordan Pond. The restaurant has a nice view of two, small, rounded mountains called The Bubbles that sit at the north end of Jordan Pond.

Jordan Pond and The Bubbles

Jordan Pond House is in the vicinity of the first carriage roads built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the restaurant became a favorite stop for afternoon tea.

In 1946, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. bought the restaurant and gave it to the Federal Government to preserve it. Following the destruction of the original restaurant by fire in 1979, a new restaurant was built by private donations. The new restaurant continues many of the traditions of the original Jordan Pond House.

One of those traditions is serving tea and popovers on the enclosed veranda or outside on the lawn overlooking Jordan Pond and The Bubbles. Margery likes to have tea, but it was around 1:00, so we decided to stop for lunch. The traditional popovers are also served with some of the lunches.

Parking is very difficult near Jordan Pond House, but we lucked out again and found a spot in the main lot even though cars were parked for a distance of half a mile down the side of the road. We gave our name at the desk and were told it would be a wait of about an hour for an outside table. We wandered around and checked out the gift shop and some of the flowers around the grounds.

Garden area at Jordan Pond House

Closeup of one of the flowers in the garden

Planter box near Jordan Pond House

After almost 1¼ hours, our pager went off, and we got our table with a nice view of the pond and The Bubbles in the distance. Janice and Dave had already gone to Jordan Pond House, and they recommended the lobster stew. It is made with big chunks of lobster, cream, butter and sherry. It was yummy as were the popovers with butter and strawberry preserves.

Outside seating area behind the restaurant

Margery at Jordan Pond House with The Bubbles off in the distance

Prices at Jordan Pond House aren't cheap. Lunches range from about $10 to $20. The price for lobster stew and popovers is $15.75 for a cup and $21.25 for a bowl. Margery had to keep reminding Paul, it's all about the experience.

From Jordan Pond House, we continued up the park loop road past The Bubbles. On the side of South Bubble is a large, balanced boulder called Bubble Rock that was deposited there when the glacier that once covered this area melted.

Balanced boulder deposited by the glacier on the side of South Bubble

The road passes several other ponds and lakes with numerous hiking trails as it travels north from Jordan Pond and The Bubbles. It also passes the side road to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, but since we drove up there on Monday, we passed on by and headed back to the motor home to rest up for out next outing. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

Carriage Roads of Acadia National Park

Trenton, ME - Events of Monday, August 11, 2013

In the 1800s, Mount Desert Island became a favorite location for summer homes for the wealthy of New York, Boston and other big cities in the east. Many of the summer residents built what they called cottages, but what we commoners would call mansions. They used the term "cottage" to refer to the fact it is not a year-round home rather than to its size. One such well-known, wealthy, summer resident was John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who was the son of John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. John, Jr. and his family first came to Mount Desert Island in 1908.

One of the things John, Jr. liked to do was drive carriages. He didn't care at all for the new-fangled automobile. In 1913, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. set about building carriage roads on Mount Desert Island where he and his wealthy friends could drive carriages, relax and enjoy the beauty of nature. Like his father, John, Jr. was a philanthropist, and he continued building carriage roads at his own expense up until around 1940 even after Acadia became a national park.

There are ranger-led walks of a short section of the carriage roads on Mondays and Fridays at 9:00 a.m. The walk also includes a couple of the granite bridges Rockefeller had his crews build over some of the creeks and ravines. We were still anxious to see the main part of Acadia National Park by driving the loop road; but since the carriage-road walks were only on Mondays and Fridays, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and do the walk on Monday.

We arrived at the Parkman Mountain parking area around 8:30 a.m. to meet up with the ranger. The parking area isn't very big (only about 10 or 12 cars). By 8:45, the lot was full, and cars were parked along the entrance drive and out onto the main road. Not only was there a ranger-led walk, but the carriage roads are very popular for bike riding, and lots of cars with bike racks were also showing up for a morning ride.

Susan, the ranger who led our walk, started out with a short explanation of how stone was cut for the bridges and retaining walls. She had a collection of hand drills, chisels and wedges that would have been used back in the day to cut the stone.

Ranger Susan who led our walk

There is granite all over the island, so the stone cutters used granite that was located close to where they were building if possible. If there wasn't a good supply of good granite nearby, there were numerous quarries on the island.

The carriage roads were state-of-the-art for the turn of the century. They are about 16 feet wide so two carriages could pass, and they are designed to withstand Maine's wet weather. There are three layers of different sizes of gravel with a crown for good drainage. There are drainage ditches along the sides of the roads, and frequent culverts to drain water under the roads to prevent wash-out.

Typical carriage road

As we said, bicycling on the carriage roads is popular in spite of the fact there are lots of moderately steep hills. The cyclists are supposed to yield to pedestrians, but many of the cyclists are moving pretty fast on the downhill sections, so the ranger had to constantly remind us to stay to one side. Everyone in the group was supposed to yell, "BIKE" the minute they saw one so everyone else would have as much warning as possible to get out of the way. The roads are packed gravel, but the surface gravel is fine and rather loose, so it is hard to stop a bike quickly. There were about 25 in the group, so we took up a good bit of space.

Our group

Rockefeller designed the roads to have reasonable grades and turns so they could be easily navigated by horse-drawn vehicles. He also liked to provide attractive vistas where possible.

View from a turn in one of the carriage roads

Lower elevations of Mount Desert Island are covered with spruce and fir forests. The aroma of the pine was so strong in places that it reminded us of what we used to think was the artificial pine smell of pine-scented candles. Guess the pine-scented candles are less artificial that we thought. We also enjoyed seeing the different textures of lichens, mosses, evergreen trees and ferns along the roads as we walked.

Various colors and textures of plants along the road

After walking about half a mile, we came to the first of two bridges we would see on the walk. There are 17 bridges along the carriage roads, 16 of which were built by Rockefeller. The 17th was built by the Park Service.

The first of the two bridges on our walk was Hemlock Bridge. Its graceful curve follows the contour of the hillside. Round stonework decorates the ends of the rails.

Hemlock Bridge

The foundations and main structure of the bridges and are concrete faced with slabs of hand-cut granite, not a thin veneer. No two bridges are the same. Some have turrets, some have gothic arches, some have round arches and some have multiple arches. Each bridge is also marked with the year it was completed.

Date of completion

A hiking trail followed the stream below the bridge.

Hiking trail under the bridge

The second bridge was only a short distance away. It has turrets and is called Waterfall Bridge because it has a waterfall next to it.

Faterfall Bridge

Waterfall at the second bridge

The arch goes under Waterfall Bridge at an angle rather than being perpendicular to the bridge so the arch frames the waterfall when viewed from the hiking trail downstream. It was more difficult to construct the bridge this way because of the different angles at which the granite facing stones had to be cut, but Rockefeller wanted both the carriage roads and the hiking trails to provide pleasant experiences.

Waterfall framed by the the bridge arch

Rockefeller continued to pay for maintenance of the 45 miles of carriage roads until his death in 1960. Unfortunately, he didn't provide for the continued maintenance of the roads in his will, and the burden fell to the National Park Service. Because of other park expenses, the roads were largely neglected until a group called Friends of Acadia was formed in the 1980s. Their love for Acadia provided volunteers and fund raising efforts to rescue and restore the roads. Their efforts continue today.

After the ranger-led walk, we walked back to the car and headed back up the western side of the park loop road. We decided to take the turn off to Cadillac Mountain since the weather was clear and since it was still relatively early in the day. The road winds about 3½ miles up the side of the mountain. The parking lot at the summit was pretty full, and cars were also parked along the road; but we lucked out and found a spot that was conveniently located.

We walked the short loop which looks down on Frenchman Bay and the town of Bar harbor.

Frenchman Bay

Bar Harbor gets its name from the fact there is a sand/gravel bar that connects Mount Desert Island with a smaller island called Bar Island. The bar is above water at low tide, and you can walk from the town of Bar Harbor to Bar Island. We'll have more on that in a future post. It was high tide when the telephoto shot of Bar Harbor and Bar Island below was taken so the bar was submerged, but it can be seen as a light area in the water at the left end of the island.

Telephoto view of Bar Harbor and Bar Island

To the southeast, we could see Schoodic Peninsula off in the far distance.

Schoodic Peninsula in the distance

As you can see in the photos above and below, the are few trees at the summit, and the ones that do grow there are stunted because of cold temperatures and poor soil that exist on the summit. Lichens, however, thrive at the summit and add an interesting pattern of bright green, dark gray and light blue to the pink granite rocks.

Stunted trees and colorful lichens at Cadillac Mountain summit

View to the southwest

From Cadillac Mountain, we headed back to the motor home. Even though the ranger-led walk had some uphills and downhills, it was only about 1½ miles. However, after spending over 2½ hours on our feet, we were tired, and we needed to rest up for our next adventure. Stay tuned.

Schoodic Peninsula

Trenton, ME - Events of Sunday, August 11, 2013

After seeing the video on Acadia National Park at the visitor center on Friday and going back to the motor home to study the map, we were anxious to get to see the park. Unfortunately, the weather forecast said there may be lingering clouds and showers on Saturday, so we decided to hang around the motor home to do our weekly cleaning chores and relax.

On Sunday, rather than head to the main part of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island where we thought it might be more crowded because of the weekend, we decided to head for a separate part of the park that is located on the southern tip of Schoodic Peninsula. Schoodic Peninsula is only about 5 miles to the east across Frenchman Bay from Mount Desert Island, but the driving distance is more like 15 or 20 miles from where we were staying. When we talked to Janice and Dave when we first arrived, they mentioned Schoodic Peninsula is equally as beautiful as the rest of Acadia and it's not nearly as crowded. The lady in the campground office when we checked in said the same thing.

Schoodic Peninsula isn't as mountainous as Mount Desert Island, but the there are plenty of spectacular views of the rocky Maine coast. Our first stop was at Frazier's Point where we could see Winter Harbor Lighthouse across Winter Harbor Bay.

Winter Harbor Lighthouse

Frazier's Point

There are lots of pull-offs where you can park and scramble down over the rocks to see tidal pools, walk on gravel beaches or just enjoy the view right from your car.

Gravel beach

Since it was only a short time after low tide, we did stop at one of the many small bays and inlets to check out a couple of tidal pools. Unfortunately, we didn't see anything interesting in any of pools, but we could see Mount Desert Island off in the distance across Frenchman Bay. The most prominent feature on the Mount Desert Island is Cadillac Mountain. Its elevation of 1,528 feet makes it the highest peak on the island.

Cadillac Mountain, highest peak on Mount Desert Island

Schoodic Point is at the very southern tip of Schoodic Peninsula. Until we reached Schoodic Point, all our water views had been of bays and inlets with calm water. As we drove out to Schoodic Point, there were waves coming in off the ocean to add even more interest to our views.

View out toward the open ocean from the western side of Schoodic Point

Margery enjoying the view

View of Little Moose Island off the western side of Schoodic Point

Another view from the western side of Schoodic Point

The very tip of Schoodic Point is relatively flat, pink granite that is so prevalent in this area. However, there are some interesting, dark-colored veins running through the granite. The granite began as magma deep within the earth's crust. After it made its way to the surface and cooled, cracks formed over time. These cracks were later filled with a different type of darker-colored volcanic rock called diabase. Diabase dikes can be seen in many locations throughout this area.

Dark vein of diabase volcanic rock running through the pink granite

From Schoodic Point, we got an even better view of Cadillac Mountain. Cadillac Mountain was previously called Green Mountain. It was renamed Cadillac Mountain in 1918 in honor of the French explorer, Antoine de Cadillac. Cadillac also helped found Detroit, which is the reason we also have an automobile by the same name.

Cadillac Mountain from Schoodic Point with a  vein of dark-colored diabase in the foreground

To the south of Schoodic Point is open ocean. Even though it was a relatively calm day, and it was a short time after low tide, there was an occasional wave hitting shore that was fairly large.

Occasional large wave hitting Schoodic Point

From Schoodic Point, we continued to make our way around the peninsula and stopped at Blueberry Hill where there were yet more views of rocky, gravel beaches.

Blueberry Hill looking north

Blueberry Hill looking south toward the open ocean

We left the area of the national park and headed north past Birch Harbor where a lone fishing boat was anchored.

Lone fishing boat in Birch Harbor

As you may know, Maine is lobster country. They are the number one producer of lobsters in the United States. In Maine, lobster is usually served boiled or steamed, but you can also occasionally find grilled lobster on the menu.

Another popular way to get lobster is in a lobster roll. Chunks of lobster meat, sometimes with a little onion or scallion added, are served on a hot dog bun that is slit on the top. In Maine, there is usually a small amount of mayonnaise used to hold the lobster together and help keep the chunks from falling out of the bun. In some places, butter is sometimes used in place of the mayonnaise.

We were curious to try a lobster roll. When we asked in the office, they recommended two places that both happened to be on the road from Schoodic Point. We decided to stop at Tracy's, which the first one we came to on the way back. It was a good thing, because when we passed the other place later, they were closed, apparently because it was Sunday.

Tracy's

Tracy's serves a variety of fresh seafood from lobster rolls to boiled, whole lobster, clams, mussels and several kinds of fish. They have an outside order window with picnic tables, or you can go inside for sit-down service. As far as we could tell, the prices were the same inside and out, so we went inside because there was a shortage of picnic tables outside when we arrived.

The special of the day was was two lobster rolls for $10. Lucky us! Because we knew they would be small for that price (the usual price most places for lobster rolls is $14 to $20), we each ordered two rolls each plus a small order of onion rings ($3) to share.

Two lobster rolls and a small order of onion rings

The lobster rolls were small, but not tiny. They were about 5 inches long, and although they weren't filled to overflowing with lobster, they were stuffed fairly full. We got plenty to eat.

We weren't sure how we would like lobster with mayonnaise, but it turned out to be delicious. A good lobster roll shouldn't be swimming in mayonnaise - there should be just enough to keep the chunks of meat from falling out of the bun. The rolls were New England-style hot dog buns, and the outsides of the buns had been slathered with butter and nicely toasted.

Margery with her lobster rolls and onion rings

The onion rings were also good - sweet and tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside. However, they were a little greasy unlike the ones we had recently at Ipswich Clambake Co.

As we made our way back to the motor home, we happened to see a sign for Tidal Falls Park along the road. Hmmm, a tidal falls? Sounds interesting. We took the turnoff and headed down Tidal Falls Road to the park.

The tide rushes in and out through a particularly narrow opening in Taunton Bay, which is located at the mouth of the Taunton River, and creates a reversing rapids depending on the tide. The sign at the park said the best time to see the falls is an hour before low tide because the rocks in the bottom of the channel would be more exposed and create a more dramatic flow pattern. We were there about an hour before high tide, and the flow was still quite amazing. The direction of flow in the next photo is upstream and is created entirely by the incoming tide.

Incoming tide creating flow upstream at Tidal Falls

After watching the upstream water flow for a while at Tidal Falls, we headed back to the motor home for an evening of TV. We had more plans for Monday. Stay tuned.