We visited Acadia NP in 1970 and were impressed. It was probably only the second or third national park we'd seen. If I can find some of the old pix I'll post them later. Meanwhile, we were at Acadia a couple days this time, at the end of the season. This is a park where the free shuttle service (provided by LL Bean) takes you just about anywhere you want to go, and we did the park loop and a stop at Bar Harbor the first day. The second day, the shuttle service was over, done for the season, so we just drove around on our own and did some walking on the excellent trails.
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Flashback: Acadia NP, summer 1970 |
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Flashforward: 2016: Last day of season visitor center
crowd; the line to pay entrance admission was out the
door |
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One of the hikes we did was from Sand Beach to Otter Cliff; there's Sand Beach |
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Typical Acadian views along the way |
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Trees coming along nicely |
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Thunder Hole, sort of a cliff cave into which the waves
disappear and then thunder back out |
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View from near Thunder Hole |
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Thundering |
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A few hundred yards down the coast,
a former Thunder Hole; aeons ago |
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The trail, tucked in between the park loop road and
the cliffs and beaches |
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Interesting burls |
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Endless beautiful rocky coast |
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Sea stack baby |
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At Jordan Pond, the tradition is to have
a Popover at the restaurant |
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While waiting for ours to pop over,
we had a great view of something
utterly unique...an NPS employee
cutting down a tree (it had been
damaged in the winds from Matthew) |
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Vicki's popover and raspberry lemonade |
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Walking one of the famed Carriage Roads put in
by John D. Rockefeller (he didn't like cars driving
over his property); later he donated most of what
became Acadia NP (as well as Great Smokies NP,
Grand Teton NP, and more) |
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High country at Acadia; we hope to be back...a bit
earlier next time |