Acadia National Park

We enjoyed another great day exploring Acadia National Park. We began the day by hiking to Bar Island. The tide differential here in Bar Harbor is eleven feet, so at low tide you can walk right across to another island, Bar Island. Hence the name, Bar Harbor. We really saw a great nature show. The many sea gulls picked up mussels in their beaks, flew up 30-50 feet and dropped them on rocks. That would break the mussels and allow them to eat the goodies inside. We saw barnacles, snails, and lots of sea weed as we crossed the sand bar. On the other side there was a half mile hike to the top of Bar Island where we looked back to see where we just crossed. There are two high and low tides a day, so there are lots of opportunities to witness this miracle of nature.

Our next adventure was to hike to the cobblestone bridge on the Carriage Road. These 45 miles of auto-free roads were built from the 20's to 40's by J.D. Rockefeller, Jr. In addition to these excellent roads there are several stone bridges built over many of the streams. After looking at photographs from a professional photographer, we decided seeing this particular cobblestone bridge would be worth the hike. Not only was the hike gorgeous, but the bridge was spectacular. We hiked under and all around it and took lots of great pictures. We continued down the road to see two more stone bridges, which were fascinating, as well. All the bridges have differences, but the cobblestone bridge is the only one made from materials that are not cut.

Not wanting to leave the park, we traveled to the southern side of the park to see the island's only lighthouse. Here we were underwhelmed with the lighthouse, but the drive took us through a picturesque small town and three harbor towns. We had lunch at Southwest Harbor, which had mediocre food but a great view. The park's boundaries are very irregular. There are patches with houses and towns and then you're back in the park. The boundaries are determined by the land that was donated to it.

The highlight of our day was definitely discovering the Carriage Roads and bridges. It's difficult to describe their beauty. We had a nice dinner at Wonder View Resort. The view was spectacular, and the food again just okay. Guess we should just stick to lobster every meal.