August 9, 2019
Bar Harbor, ME
Bar Harbor Campground
Site K-14
Day 8 started just a little bit slower, with some errands while waiting for the rain to clear. Our plan today was to head over to the Schoodic Peninsula. As with most places in Maine, it is only 10 miles from Bar Harbor as the crow flies, but it is just over an hour drive, as illustrated in this very professional graphic.
Because of this, only about 10% of Acadia visitors end up seeing the Schoodic Peninsula. Their loss, as it is remarkably beautiful. If you are planning to come to Acadia, plan one day to spend there along with either a lunch or dinner stop in Winter Harbor. You will not be disappointed.
Once you enter the Schoodic portion of the park, you are on a mostly one way loop. The first stop is Frazer Point, where there is currently some sort of a footbridge under construction. This has a portion of the grassy waterfront area closed, but there is still a lot of accessible area. We arrived during low tide, so we proceeded to skip some rocks and enjoy the fact that we could see for more than 100 feet in front of us for the first time in 3 days.
Next up on the park loop is Pond Island and West Pond Cove. It's basically almost like a pier jutting out into the cove, but the 'pier' is entirely comprised of rocks.
We spent a fair amount of time here, as the scenery just keeps getting better the more you explore. You be the judge.
We asked Jordan to take a picture of the two of us. That went... OK.
Since it was low tide, we found a log that had gotten lodged in some of the rocks, which immediately became a balance beam. One of us made it across.
Jordan has already changed the tagline of Maine to "Jordan's Playground", so everything becomes fair game to climb, jump on, slide down, etc.
Once we left West Pond Cove, it was on to Schoodic Point. This place is hard to describe - picture a vast expanse of rocky coastline that you are completely free to explore. It is one of the few remaining spaces at a National Park that hasn't somehow given in to barricading, roping off, or creating a tiny viewing platform to restrict traffic. Maybe it is because so few people visit, or Maine actually assumes that people can be accountable for their own actions, or they just haven't been sued by an ambulance chaser, yet, but whatever it is, THANK YOU! Just look at these images, and imagine being able to spend hours wandering wherever you want with no restrictions.
The mountain you see in the backdrop of many of those photos is Cadillac Mountain, back on Mount Desert Island on the main section of Acadia.
The other thing that is present while you are free to wander is the crashing of the ocean waves against the granite formations. We could have sat here for hours if time was no object.
Not sure if this is normally the case, but we also got to see a seal playing in the waves just off the coast. I couldn't get a decent enough pic with either of our phones, but the woman behind us snapped a few shots and showed Jordan - so cool!
The next stop on the loop was Blueberry Hill, and there is a hiking trail there that takes you to Schoodic Head. We were pretty beat after spending a few hours playing on the rocks, so we decided to do the shorter trail to the Anvil lookout.
As soon as we started up the hill, we realized we were all a bit sore from yesterday's Beech Cliff hike. This trail started with a slight incline but quickly turned into a climb straight up the hillside.
If you have more time, doing the loop to Schoodic Head seems like a fun option. We loved this short one, especially since you get to enjoy the ocean one more time at the end of the hike.
From here, we wrapped up our Schoodic visit and decided we would try to catch Sand Beach back on the main island before sunset. Before that, we needed food. We were starving, so the first place we passed was the Pickled Wrinkle. If you get the chance, go here. They had Hungry Eyes playing on the jukebox, so any time you can enjoy amazing seafood surrounded by the cheesiest of 80s tunes, you have to do it.
We beelined it for Sand Beach to watch the waves at high tide, and were not disappointed.
This place has so many different things to offer, it's hard to imagine ever growing tired of it. I know that this will not be our last visit. Each day we get back to the campsite completely wiped out, but excited about the next day's adventures.
Tomorrow - we're winging it. Weather is supposed to be good in the morning, so an early bike ride is in order, from there we'll play it by ear.
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