Acadia National Park

During my week in Bar Harbor, Maine for Samba Meets Jazz

 camp I took advantage of my limited free time to see

as much of the Acadia National Park as I could.

It wasn't much. I barely made a dent in all the things

to see and do in Acadia. So I'll have to return someday.

But this is what I did have time to see...

On Tuesday, I skipped lunch to check out the land bridge that 

is exposed at low tide to walk to Bar Island.

I walked to an island! So cool!

Formerly under the sea.

And will be again in a few hours.

Seagull buffet.

Made it to the island!

The trail was short, and ultimately didn't seem to lead to anywhere.

Still, nice walk on the island.

On Wednesday, I skipped lunch again and used the Island Explorer

bus system to get to the Thunder Hole, at the southern end

 of Mount Desert Island.

This is probably more impressive at high tide, but when the waves

crash into this hole it makes thunderous sounds.

 

Still a really great view of the Atlantic Ocean!

On Thursday, I skipped lunch again and used the bus to explore Sieur de Monts Nature center.

The Abbe Museum gives detailed information about the native peoples who lived in this area.

There is also a garden featuring the many kinds of plants that live in the area.

Nature selfie.

On Friday, we were given the morning off (no classes) so I used the bus and

took myself to the start of a trail to the summit of Dorr Mountain.

Because I had a specific time frame, I chose to climb the slightly smaller 

mountain instead of Cadillac. 

At the trail head. This is gorgeous!

The Tarn.

It begins. One hour to the top! Sweating buckets all the way!

About halfway up.

Stop to rest. Already a pretty view.

Cairns. These help with navigation along a trail, apparently.

I quickly learned to follow them up the rock face.

The trail eventually disappeared in favor of this rock sheet. The blue marks

 and the cairns kept me going in the right direction. Harder at this point because

an inclined sheet rock is a different kind of climb than stair-stepping rocks.

I made it!

What an amazing view!

Happy mountain climber!

Well, now I had to go down. I missed the trail head that I wanted to 

use to get back down, so wound up taking a different trail (the hard way) to the ground.

Two hours to get down.

But I didn't fall or break an ankle and got lost only once!

Tip: If you're on a trail in a national park, take notice if they use blazes like this one

to mark the trails. These are painted on trees and rocks along the trail and helped me

regain my direction on the one instance that I lost sight of where I was going.