Magnificent Maine #72

Sept. 2008

The truth is we pretty much shot straight across Vermont and New Hampshire with only a couple of stops because we had caught colds and just didn’t feel like doing much of anything. One way to make ourselves feel better was to stop at the original Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, VT. Cokie says it is a great cure for what ails you, after all ice cream was sold in drug stores! The intrepid photographer always finds some tidbit of loveliness to memorialize and I am always grateful to her for bringing beauty into our lives every day. Even when we stayed in a funky private campground for a couple of days to do laundry and treat our colds, she could find phun phungus to photograph.







We crossed Vermont and the Green Mountains and drove straight into the White Mountains National Forest of New Hampshire. Again our Lady of the Lenses phound phungus photography a whole lot of phun!



We had our hopes set on finding the beginning of the fall colors in these northern climes as we headed straight for Acadia NP. We stopped in Fryeburg at the Welcome to Maine Center and I picked up enormous amounts of information about things to see and do in Maine. I always like to ask people what their favorite things to see and do in their home state might be and the Ladies at the center told me about Schoodic Point and Quoddy Head State Park plus Campobello Island. We stopped at Lake St. George State Park for one night and then kept right on trekking for the NP as we had a reservation for the 15th. We arrived in fine shape and settled in at Blackwoods Campground to plan our stay.






Acadia National Park is the first national park pieced together out of private property donations made to the Federal Government. The nouveau riches of the late 19th and early 20th century often summered in these coves and bays. They watched industrialization begin to impact their beloved places and made the commitment to save them. In 1901, Harvard President Charles W. Eliot formed a land trust which acquired 5,000 acres which was then presented to the Federal Government. President Woodrow Wilson declared the island a National Monument in 1916. As more land donations expanded the monument, Congress, in 1919, declared it a National Park. Sea meets land here and the diversity is nearly overwhelming - from tide pools and cliffs to woodlands, lakes and mountains. We’ll try to show a few of the wonders we found as we explored the 27 mile Park Loop Road:

One of the first things we encountered was a remarkable1933 stone bridge. I thought, “Wow, the CCC was artistic in this camp” but then I learned that starting in 1913, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. began building miles of carriage roads on what was then his large estate, including many elegant bridges designed by landscape architects. He later donated 56 miles of the carriage roads to the park with the stipulation that they were never to be driven upon by automobiles. Now they are utilized by hikers, bikers, cross-country skiers and horse drawn carriages.


Next was Jordan Pond, a glacially carved lake with a moraine, or glacial rubble dam, holding in the fresh water. Jordan Pond House has sat upon this moraine, serving popovers, tea and refreshments, since 1896. The two mountains seen at the end of Jordon Pond are interestingly named North Bubble and South Bubble. At a soaring 872 feet and 766 feet, respectively, I guess I understand why they might not be called mountains. At one time, about 360 million years ago they were mountains. Granite Domes are the bedrock of Acadia NP. Once the granite formed the backbone of a massive mountain range, since eroded away. Because granite is one of the hardest rocks around, the granite domes remained long after the overlying mountains were gone. As the tremendous weight of the overlying rocks was removed the granite expanded and cracked along gently curving surfaces that reflect the shape of the domes. These layers peeled away, like the layers of an onion, but the dome shape always remained. This process is called exfoliation. Whew!



Across the road from Jordon Pond House is one of the two formal gatehouses built at the entrances to the carriage roads. Rockefeller loved to drive horse carriages, so here and at Brown Mountain, where the carriage roads intersected with the public roads, were the points at which JDR, Jr. and his neighbors could gain easy access to and from his 11,000 acre estate.



Our next photo session was at Bubble Pond which has no relation to No. and So. Bubbles. It is part of a large basin scooped out by glacial action and slowly filled with fresh water.


Cadillac Mountain is the highest point in the park and is also the largest of the granite domes at an elevation of 1,530 feet. This rock began as molten magma which intruded into older, overlying rock. As it cooled, it hardened and crystallized. It became peppered with flecks of black hornblende and quartz crystal. Pink feldspar gives Cadillac Mountain its distinctive color. The entire park is located on Mount Desert Island, so named by explorer Samuel Champlain in 1604. He saw Cadillac Mountain and the many other domes as “…destitute of trees, as there are only rocks on them” and thus named the island “Isle des Monts Deserts”. The road was a pretty good grade but the Pod was its intrepid self and the view from the top was panoramic.







The town of “Bah Hahbah” (Bar Harbor) was much too busy and traffic jammed for us to comfortably move the Pod around, so we continued on the Park Loop Road down the coast to Sand Beach. One of only two beaches in the park and with an average water temperature of just 60 degrees, there were few swimmers!






We just had to stop at Thunder Hole hoping to hear it thunder as the tide came roaring in. We were there just at the beginning of the incoming tide and got some good photos of the spray and a little taste of what the full thunder during a storm might sound like.





Otter Point at Otter Cove didn’t give us any glimpses of otters but rather a splendid view of rugged granite cliffs vainly trying to withstand the onslaught of the inevitable waves.




End of part one-stay tuned