About That New England, Part III (May 25 - 30)

Dear Family and Friends,

Bonjour from Quebec!

Although we arrived in Quebec, Canada, on Friday, this blog is about the week we spent in Maine. We capped our five month stay (January through May) in the eastern US, with a trip to the north eastern most national park, Acadia National Park. From Key West, Florida to Maine, we have driven 6,000 miles since January. We have driven 35,000 miles in our RVs since we started this adventure three years ago.

We left Moose River Campground, Vermont on a very wet Tuesday morning and drove through the green hills back to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. With our smaller RV, we were able to leave the major roads and drive on country roads. We saw lots of Beware of Moose signs, but not any moose. We continued northward from New Hampshire into Maine.

 A very wet Tuesday morning

 Partial clearing of the rain

 Moose signs

We drove to Bangor and then east to Bar Harbor, Maine. Acadia National Park is one of 390 parks in the national park system. It was the gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and was declared a national park in 1919, becoming the first national park, east of the Mississippi River.

The park has two campgrounds, and we stayed at Blackwoods. We were thrilled with our smaller RV and had no trouble parking it in the much smaller, heavily wooded campsites. Acadia is a lovely park and we had so much fun exploring it. With schools still in session and very cool weather, there were very few tourists. Apparently the busy season starts in July.

There is a 27 mile Park Loop Road that connects Acadia's lakes, forested areas, mountains and seashore. Acadia sits right on the rocky coast of Maine and overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.  Cadillac Mountain is the highest point in the park at 1, 530 feet. Rockefeller designed and  financed 17 stone faced bridges that span streams, roads and cliff sides in the park. In addition, he built Carriage Trails. These are 16 feet wide roads limited to hiking, biking and horses.

 One of the 17 stone faced bridges with a carriage trail running across it while an automobile road runs under neath.

 The carriage trail running across the bridge in the upper picture.

 Bear has a run on the trail.

The pictures below show the craggy coast line of Maine looking out to the Atlantic Ocean. We got to see the coast on a rainy, foggy day as well as a beautiful, blue sky day. There are very few sandy beaches.

With many carriage trails to hike, we chose a 6 mile one that we could do with Bear. The day was beautiful.

 Looking out to a lake and then the Atlantic.

 Roger and Bear pose on top of a bridge.

 Small waterfalls in the park

 Spring is just now starting in the park.

After the hike we drove up to Cadillac Mountain, where we had a 360 degree view of Acadia. It was one of those breath taking moments with views of the Atlantic Ocean, Frenchmen Bay

 Looking out to the Atlantic Ocean from the top of Cadillac Mountain

 Atlantic Ocean

 Atlantic Ocean

 Frenchmen Bay from the top of Cadillac Mountain. The Atlantic is on the opposite side.

 Roger poses in front of the Atlantic

In addition to enjoying Acadia, we spent lots of time in Bar Harbor. No trip to Maine would be complete without a lobster dinner, seafood chowder and blueberry ice cream. The picture below was taken as Roger enjoyed his lobster (or as they say in Maine, "lobsta) in Bar Harbor.

                                      

What an incredible week we had in Maine. Our stay in New England was great. We loved spending our time driving through the countryside and skipping the big cities.

Thank you for checking in with us. We are spending a week in Quebec and Ottawa before heading back into the United States at Sault Set. Marie, next weekend.