Acadia National Park has been on my bucket list for years. It’s far from home in Gresham and out of the way even in New England. But in early October of this year my wife and I along with another couple planned a Fall Leaves Trip. From Portland, OR to Portland, MA is a long plane ride, made more difficult with the mask mandates. But we survived.
The drive from Portland to Acadia is 176 miles. We stayed off the freeways and found the less traveled but slower back routes. Lodging fills rapidly and requires planning ahead but we found a quaint hotel in Northeast Harbor near the more crowded Bar Harbor.
Acadia National Park was established in 1916 and compared to the national parks in the west it is small. But it is in the top ten most visited parks in the U.S. with 3.5 million visitors a year. So during peak seasons expect crowds and traffic. October is peak “leaf peeping” season and the fall leaves were spectacular.
The crowning jewel of the park is the summit of Cadillac Mt. which is the highest point along the Eastern Seaboard at 1,530 feet. To provide a comparison, Larch Mt. just to the east of us is 4,061 feet. Not much of a mountain by western standards but it is impressive non-the-less. We had to get a timed permit to drive to the top. Views are magnificent. The granite boulders are so impressive. We hiked around the top and moved down to the 27 mile loop road.
I was surprised to learn that this part of Maine was formed and fashioned by glaciers. Familiar geologic formations like U-shaped valleys, glacier erratics and glacier-formed lakes abound. We stopped at the Jordan Pond and took a short hike along the shore. Signs warn against swimming as the lake provides drinking water to the town of Seal Harbor. A variety of deciduous trees with flaming colors were reflected in the pond eliciting the oohs and ahhs of all visitors.
Along the loop road we discovered the Wild Gardens. A short stroll through the garden was soothing to the mind and soul. A sign entering the garden read, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” by John Keats. We stopped at Otter Point and soak in the sights and sounds of water and wind. We thought we saw the heads of sea otters off shore but later learned that sea otters only live on the west coast. Something was bobbing around out there, just not sea otters.
For ten days we toured around Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and flew home from Providence, RI. A trip to New England in the fall is a trip never to be forgotten, with its covered bridges, rivers with granite strewn boulders, very old graveyards (some with their own ghosts), the Old Vermont Mercantile, and, of course, ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s delight visitors. It was wonderful for a northwesterner to visit our cross country cousins in the northeast. However we came home with a greater appreciation for what we have in our own back yards.
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