Our first day in Maine ... we decided to drive towards Bar Harbor, about 40 miles from the RV park. After spending time online looking at points of interest we might visit, and restaurants serving lobster, of course, we originally planned to eat late in the afternoon.
It is Sunday, and after some quick discussion, we decided to head into Acadia National Park, do the 26-mile route around the island, and eat later in the day. Yes, "island" ... Acadia National Park is a 47,000-acre recreation area on Maine's Mount Desert Island. Its landscape is marked by woodland, rocky beaches and glacier-scoured granite peaks such as Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the United States’ East Coast.
Hiking is the most popular pastime on the island and many "historic trails" await the avid or casual hiker, says the brochure. We noted that among the wildlife present on the island are moose, bear, whales and seabirds ... we saw only the seabirds (so far)!
The long-way-around is all 2-lane in one direction with plenty of pull-outs to park and take-in the beautiful view of other islands (Sheep Porcupine, Burnt Porcupine, Long Porcupine, Bald Porcupine) and the Atlantic Ocean. The plan was to end up on Cadillac Mountain, but when we arrived at the Ranger Station we found passage was by "reservation only"; not even my Senior Pass would gain us entrance like it had into the general Park entrance.
So, we drove to an area where cell service was available and tried to buy the $6 required ticket ($4 actually, $2 reservation fee!!!). After several tries my "reservation.gov" account was locked-out. Okay, time to find the restaurants on that list from online research.
Well ... lunchtime traffic in Bar Harbor was getting heavy, and wait lines at the two restaurants on our list were zigzag out onto the sidewalks. I decided we should get out of town while the hubcaps were still attached and try to find an over-the-counter lobster shack on the way back to the RV.
And, we did find a hole-in-the-wall shack called C-Ray Lobster, boiling them fresh in the back and serving them hot at the front. We opted for a bowl of New England Clam Chowder and Blueberry pie (the popular desert here) ... saving the lobster experience for tomorrow! BTW, there are 88 restaurants in the area!
Driving around Bar Harbor and surrounding neighborhoods is a cross between Mt. Lassen Park, west cliff drive in Santa Cruz, Carmel in Monterey, and the North Coast of California. The big difference is the sun comes up over the water and goes down over the land if you are at the beach!
You can actually walk, or drive, across a "sandbar" that reveals itself at low tide twice a day, to Bar island and explore the rocks and tide pools on the bar or just explore the island. A ranger told us you have a 3-hour window; low tide is 1-1/2 hours into the window and you had better be headed back after that, or you may be stranded until the next low tide! We opted NOT to try this!
So, with Cadillac Mountain pass now in hand, we plan to head to downtown and the old Bar Harbor pier for a morning stroll, then head up to the mountain at 11:30, our registered pass time. After that, maybe that late-afternoon lobster lunch? Stay tuned ...
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