Acadia National Park -- Desert Island

Not too many people in the western United States are aware of Acadia National Park in Maine. In fact, I only know of two, maybe three, of my acquaintances or friends who have ever visited it (even though it is on the list of most visited parks in the US). The closest comparison I could have would be with Olympic National Park, but even that doesn't come very close.

Acadia was established in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson and now encompasses more than 49,000 acres. It covers nearly half of Mount Desert Island, a scattering of smaller islands and the Schoodic Peninsula (which I'll talk about tomorrow). We started our trip yesterday at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center.

 

The first thing we noticed as we entered the park would these huge blocks of quarried granite that served as barriers along the edges of most of the roads through the park --

The blocks are as big as those concrete barriers we see along the highways. I wish I would have started counting them as we drove. There must be way more than a thousand of the things!

We took the 27 mile Loop Road around the Desert (pronounced dessert) Island portion of the park. The first stop was at Sand Beach, the only sandy beach we've seen in Maine.

The sandy portion isn't very large, but it was packed with people (on a Monday!). The right side of the beach is more typical of the rocky coastline we've seen --

The Loop Road follows the coast around the peninsula with lots of turn-outs for looking at the gorgeous views --

I was impressed by how luxuriant the growth was on top of the rocks. There sure isn't much topsoil there!

We followed the loop up to Cadillac Mountain, the highest point along the East Coast. At 1530 feet, it is not even as high as the hill above the house at our ranch...

But, we certainly don't have this kind of a view at the ranch!

The top of the mountain is all granite. It has a pinkish cast due to the pink feldspar --

From another of the scenic overlooks, you can look down at the town of Bar Harbor and many of the nearby small islands at low tide --