continued from page 4 of our November 2012 trip to Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park:
There is, of course, more to Mt Desert Island that just Bar Harbor and the loop road of Acadia National park. Since we were staying in Bar Harbor, we did not get over to the West side of the island as much, but we did certainly go there some. One of the villages on that side of the island is Bass Harbor, which of course includes a harbor coincidentally called Bass Harbor.
Another one of the larger harbors on the island is Southwest Harbor. There was a Tall Ship docked there.
There are many other harbors on the island, some smaller and some larger. We visited a number of them.
One fun event of the week was a bird sighting of Hooded Mergansers. This is a very unusual looking duck, with the males very flashy and the females rather elegant.
The most prevalent birds were, of course, various gulls. At Seawall Picnic Area (Southwest section of the island), the gulls enjoyed sunning themselves.
Not much action with the picnic tables that week.
This next picture was from nearby Wonderland. This area has two walks, Wonderland and Ship Harbor, that are part of Acadia National Park but are separate from the main section. These are very nice easy walks. Wonderland is through nice woods, ending on a tiny point. Ship Harbor is a loop that goes along an inlet and through woods. One of the most spectacular aspects of Acadia National Park is to be on coast, at sea level, looking at nearby mountains.
A major attraction on that side of the island is the picturesque Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, which is very close to the two hikes I just mentioned. This is an attractive lighthouse on an imposing rocky shore. We were lucky enough to have some beautiful light near sunset.
In the lower left of this next photograph, you can see a shadow... a somewhat familiar shadow... It's Paul! This angle is only possible at low tide on a fairly calm day, since it requires walking across the rocks to get there.
A "must do" hike if you get up to Mount Desert Island is not part of the park. It is a nature preserve, The Nature Conservancy's Indian Point Blagden Preserve. It isn't necessarily the most photogenic, and in fact we don't have a lot of pictures from it. But it is a really nice hike. I absolutely love it. The walk goes through some very nice woods, a little field, more woods, and then along a shoreline. Occasionally you can see seals, although there were none there when we went.
Continued on page 6 for a different perspective ...
Updated July 2020