We awoke to a golden hue over the water in Little Deer. After a quick breakfast of several-days-old bagels, we headed for Blue Hill Mountain for a morning hike. The young, hip waitress at Arborvine the night before had looked us over when we asked about the Blue Hill Hike and recommended that we enjoy the meadow of lupines below the mountain. It was lovely, but we had on our hiking shoes and wanted to go up and see the view.
The climb was pretty easy at first, then we missed our cutoff for the peak and noticed we were starting to go downhill. We’d been hearing the chatter of a young voice above us for a while, and finally we saw him: a little boy hiking with his dad. They hike the hill every day, and they happily directed us back to the point at which we could head to the peak.
We might have missed that point because the way started to resemble a dry waterfall, and we were literally climbing, using our hands and feet to scale jagged edges. Tree roots dangling from above offered a friendly hand up.
At last we reached the top! The view was amazing!
There were a couple of trail options for our descent. One signpost read, “Easy” and “For Utility Crew.” I suggested we challenge ourselves and choose the path that would not be so “easy.” Oh, how hubby grumbled as we picked our way down through the steep broken up rocks! We were exhausted when we reached the bottom!
Our sign that we’d really done well with our hike is when we were both more than ready to ride for a while to the next destination. We stopped in Ellsworth at Zeppa’s Pizza (named for the owners’ dog) for eggplant parmesan pizza. It was so good, the place was adorable, and we were famished!
Refreshed by our pizza fuel, we excitedly aimed the Jeep to the Hulls Cove Visitor Center at Acadia National Park, where we got our park pass and some advice from helpful park rangers. We started our exploration with an easy walk through the Wild Gardens where hubby identified a colleague from Jackson, Miss., who was exiting a tour bus with his family. We seem to find them everywhere we go! 🙂
The Wild Gardens were ok, and our naturalist son would have been in hog heaven, but we craved a little more adventure. We joined the throngs driving the one-way Park Loop road. I had hoped to stop at Sand Beach, but the hordes got there before us. We kept driving. You can park on the road since it’s one way for this part of the loop, and we soon saw an opportunity to parallel park. Thank goodness, hubby enjoys this particular exercise as we had to do this multiple times over the next few hours.
Our abrupt stop was a happy accident. We crossed the street, climbed down some rocky steps where there were only a few people hanging out, and took in the iconic views. This was the most memorable spot of the whole visit, and we just happened upon it!
After taking some pictures (that’s Sand Beach above), we ventured further down the road, parking at Otter Point, which is a seaside trail along a peninsula. There, we were stopped by a couple of ladies who asked me to use my telephoto lens to see if a bird bathing in the water below us was a puffin. Hubby had his even-better binoculars and confirmed that indeed it was a lone puffin! The ladies were thrilled with the chance to view it through the binoculars; they complained that their expensive puffin tour never got them closer than that to the birds!
Along the trail, I spied an oil painter doing his thing and experienced a little envy!
Our last stop for the day (before dinner) was Little Hunter’s Beach. It was a simple descent on nice wooden stairs which led to a beach that consists of beautiful round rocks. They make a musical noise as the waves rush over them.
We knew we had to get checked in to the Bar Harbor Inn, eat, and get back to the park for our sunset on Cadillac Mountain for which we had to have a reservation. We raced to get a bite to eat at the Inn’s outside dining spot, watched a 4-masted boat set out for its sunset tour (ours got canceled for the next day, and hubby was not so secretly delighted), and then made our way to Cadillac Mountain to watch the sunset.
Oh, Cadillac Mountain! It was more than a little chilly up there, and the sun set midway in the sky into a bank of clouds, but it was still worth the sweating over having a reservation! Hubby and I highly recommend you try it out if ever you’re in Maine!
