Acadia, the most eastern national park

By Jane - June 28, 2016

Acadia National Park

Along the east coast

Southwest Harbor

still looking for those reflections

Acadia national park is near Bar Harbor in Maine. Even though I looked a long time ago, we couldn’t book a campsite in the National Parks campgrounds as they were full. I rang an RV park that had good reviews and they said they didn’t take bookings but they had 400 sites so it shouldn’t be a problem. We got there on a Monday and drove round and round this huge campground. Lots of sites yes, but not a lot for us. We finally settled on one that gave us plenty of room, although it was on a bit of a slope. Luckily we didn’t arrive on a weekend or we might have had trouble getting a spot. As people can choose their own site, you get smaller campers taking spots that should be reserved for much larger ones.

Like Zion and Bryce national parks, there is a free shuttle bus to try and persuade people not to drive their cars. As an added incentive one of the stops was at our campground. There are about seven routes and we took the one that did the loop road, got off at sandy beach and walked the ocean trail to a bus stop further down the loop which was much better than having to walk back to your car. At this stage Lindsay had had enough, so he went back and I was able to continue and took the bus to the next couple of stops, Jordan Pond and Bubble Pond.

Bass Light, the fog hadn't quite disappeared

There is a bus to Bass Harbor, but it’s a fair way so we decided it would be better to drive. There was a lighthouse down there. We photographed it twice, the first time in the morning, so we could see what it was like. The tide was low, the fog hadn't completely lifted and we were able to get onto the rocks below it. The second time was at sunset and the tide was at it’s highest. It was so busy there was a five-car wait to get into the carpark. I walked in with my gear and left Lindsay waiting in line. Four of the cars in front of him got sick of waiting and left, so he was able to jump the queue. Down at the rocks was of course crowded and I didn’t think I would be able to get the camera in the right place. Two people left before sunset and Lindsay manoeuvred my tripod into a precarious position and I carefully slid over. There was a guy in front of us standing in gumboots on a rock with waves lapping around him. When the waves receded he could get off and in his defence it was high tide so it wasn’t going to get any higher, but can you be sure?

Bass Harbor Light at night

We had one day of rain here, which was a good excuse to do absolutely nothing!

Lobster is big up here, but no tales from me as I don't eat seafood

Bar Harbor is right next to the park, which is a bit like Port Douglas. It’s very touristy, filled with you guessed it, lots of tourists. We had a drink looking over the water and walked out to Bar Island at low tide but that was enough. I went around the loop again on Saturday afternoon and the parked cars went for miles. So while they may have ferried six million people in these buses, it’s clearly not enough. If we hadn’t prebooked our next place we both would have liked to have stayed here a little longer.