Some Secrets in Acadia National Park

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 19, 2022

After two rainy days while we were camped near Acadia National Park, we were blessed with beautiful blue skies for our last day. We've already seen the most usual points of interest inside the park that everyone knows about. On another day, we made the drive to Schoodic Peninsula to see some of the best secret views of that section of the national park. But we still have a list of some more stops we want to make to uncover the other secrets of Acadia National Park. 

A ranger told us a secret about hiking to Bar Island. The little island just across the bay from Bar Harbor, it is only accessible during low tide--which is at 11:19 this morning. Actually, the sand bar that connects Bar Island to the mainland should be dry about an hour and a half before and after low tide. So we left our campground in time to find a parking place around 9:30 for our secret walk to Bar Island. Guess what . . . the secret is out! This is the view of the sand bar and the number of people that are here to make the hike.

We are wearing water shoes and are prepared to walk in the shallows, but they were not needed. While this sand bar is below water most of the day, it was high and dry by the time we arrived. The secret could be to arrive earlier to make the walk through the shallow water before the crowds arrive for this no-longer-secret hike.

We had plenty of time to make the hike over and back because we are here before low tide, but we saw the warning signs posted. If you walked over after low tide when the water was rising, you can get stranded on the island. Then you have some options: you can wait nine hours until the next low tide, or they include a couple phone numbers to call a water taxi to come pick you up.

Once on Bar Island, we started the hike up to the summit. We could take pictures of the sand bar across the ocean, and the mainland. While it is no secret, this is a another fun outing as we were wandering God's wonders.

No one lives on Bar Island now, but we found the remains of some of the old houses.

From the summit, we could look over the bay to the bustling town of Bar Harbor on the bigger Desert Island.

Plenty of people have made this trip to this easy summit. Summits often have a pile of rocks where people celebrate by adding another. Denisa added a rock today.

We are here in the middle of August, but we are already finding some nicely colored fall leaves in the forest.

We had read that some people find sea stars at low tide in this bay. So Denisa is using her water shoes to walk far into the ocean at this lowest tide.

The water is perfectly clear, but she's not having any luck finding sea stars. We have found stars bigger than our hands up and down the west coast, so we wanted to find at least one on the east coast. When Denisa spotted a group crouched over something in a little sea pool she walked through the water to investigate.

Hidden under a rock that we would have never found on our own, we got our first look at an east coast sea star.

But instead of being the size of our entire hand, they are about the size of a finger.

Latching onto the barnacles of a couple rocks, we took our tiny sea star pictures and then carefully put the rocks back under the shallow waters of low tide. So even though the walk to Bar Island is no secret, we know that few people saw the secret sea stars today.

We walked back at the lowest tide, and the sand bar had widened even more. That's when we learned another secret of Acadia National Park. At the lowest tide the sand is firm enough for a vehicle to make the drive to Bar Island. We saw a jeep crossing as we left. We must add that the vehicle has to be rugged enough to make it down the rutted and steep walkway from the road while it is crowded with people walking to this secret destination.

Knowing how crowded the touristy town of Bar Harbor is in the summer, we had vowed to stay out of it. But here we were on a beautiful day with time left on our parking meter. So we walked into town to see the view from the harbor. Thirteen years ago we were on a cruise that made a stop here at Bar Harbor, so we have been here before. Cruise ship traffic is finally increasing since Covid, but there were no big ships in the harbor today. That's good news for wanderers like us looking for secret places.

From the pier, we watched as a lobster boat was waiting to be unloaded. They were keeping the lobster traps wet by pumping ocean water through a hose onto the deck of the boat.

We walked down the Shore Path and then returned via a walk through town before our three-hour parking spot expired. While most one-day tourists will only see the eastern side of Mount Desert Island, we are looking for the secret locations on the western side of the island. So we drove over the Somes Sound bridge. Mark took a picture of Denisa on the white bridge at Somesville--one of the iconic views of the island.

The gardens around the bridge were also lovely, and we were the only ones there.

We were on a mission to find a secret kayaking spot in Acadia National Park. We have given up on the popular Jordan Pond, because it is too hard to get a parking spot close to the boat launch. We wouldn't have any problem with that at Long Lake on the west side of the park. 

We took a picture of a cormorant floating by, but decided that Long Lake was a little too big for our kayak trip today.

We also drove to Seal Cove Lake, but it was too little. We're like Goldilocks looking for one that's just right. In the meantime, we made a stop at Pretty Marsh to eat our picnic lunch, and then headed to the most popular sight on this western side of the national park. When we arrived, we found a long line of cars waiting for a parking space in the tiny parking lot. So Denisa walked ahead to take a lighthouse picture, while Mark sat in the pickup in that line. She got another visitor to take a picture of her in front of Bass Harbor Lighthouse, and she returned to the pickup. She was ready to check that stop off her list.

But while Mark was sitting in the line of vehicles waiting for a parking spot, he started up a conversation with a local that was walking his dog down the road. He learned of a secret place to take a picture of this lighthouse. Most visitors will veer to the right down the asphalt trail and take the picture that Denisa just got. But the local man told Mark to hike down the tougher trail to the left that looks like it is heading into the forest. By this time Mark had just parked the pickup, and we headed on the new secret hike.

It was steep, and it was rocky, and it did involve a good bit of rock scrambling at the end. But we got a much nicer picture of the Bass Harbor Lighthouse and the ocean from this secret vantage point.

That's as pretty as a postcard! It's not often that we get a good lighthouse picture with ocean views, but we loved this secret hike.

We spent some time at the lighthouse, where we met the volunteers that are spending their summer living inside. Their job this summer requires them to spend a certain number of hours answering questions from the visitors at the lighthouse. They are loving their unique summer accommodations, and their time inside this more remote part of Acadia National Park. They knew more secrets, and they shared some of them with us. They first encouraged us to drive to the Ship Harbor Trail head.

A 1.3-mile hike took us to the furthest south tip of Acadia National Park that dips low into the Atlantic Ocean. It was a great secret hike--with almost no others around. We also stopped in at Seawall, another lesser-known part of Acadia.

The volunteers' favorite lake in Acadia is Echo Pond, so we headed to Ike's Point boat launch. It was already getting late in the day when we got the kayak inflated.

The sun was low enough in the sky that one side of the lake was in the shadows while the other side was lit up.

But our favorite part of this kayak trip was our encounters with the birds. You can see the loon on the left hand edge of the picture below, and how close Denisa (and her camera) got to it.

We love to find loons, and this was a great spot for them. We love to hear as they call to each other from distant shores. But we love it the most when they let us get close enough to take pictures of their splendid feathers. . .

and their beady red eyes. We found four different loons as we paddled around the pond. Loons are quite social birds, and they seem to be as curious about us as we are of them. Instead of flying away in a panic like most water birds, they often will paddle over closer to our kayak to check us out. 

This was one of those days when they were interested in our boat. The only other boat on the lake was one with a bright sail, in the background of our last loon picture of the day.

While we had seen a lake that was too big, and one that was too small today, Echo Pond was just right! The tall rock cliffs were lovely even in the shadows this evening.

We watched the sun go down behind the mountains while we paddled around our secret lake.

We left Echo Pond at 7:00 p.m. By the time we got back to the motor home, it had been eleven hours since we left this morning. We enjoyed blue skies, no wind, and temperatures in the 70s today. It was great weather for our long last day of exploring the secrets of God's wonders in Acadia National Park.