Wherever the Road Leads: Acadia National Park

It was important to make it to Acadia before our annual National Park Pass expired at the end of the month. We chose Hadley's Point Campground, just 4 miles from the entrance, as our home base. Not a great campground....we were parked in the middle of a field with water/electric hook-ups, but we did have great neighbors. Of course, the backed up, flooded pay showers weren't impressive, but it turns out they were having septic issues. The pool had a diving board and was "heated," according to the advertising, but it certainly wasn't heated according to Texas standards; in short, it was pretty darn icy! Nonetheless, we still swam most days we were here, except the cold (60s), rainy day....but wouldn't you know, the pool was still plenty busy with other brave souls no matter how miserable the weather was!! My only regret was not getting a picture of Genna jumping off the diving board. She was so stinkin' cute up there, closing her eyes and jumping with reckless abandon, over and over and over again!!

Thunder Hole

We love amazing rocks!

Our first full day, we drove the loop road, stopping at Sand Beach (including dropping our new camera in the water--not naming any names!), Thunder Hole and hiking the Gorham Mountaiin Trail. Even though we weren't at Thunder Hole during its recommended peak viewing time, we still got a pretty nice show and heard plenty of "thunder." The kids really enjoyed it. We also really enjoyed the Gorham Mountain Trail, especially the blueberries along the trail! We found a really loaded patch, so we all stopped to pick and eat. Jake was adorable. He has an extreme fondness for most berries, and these were no exception. He got right into the thick of the bushes, searching for and picking his own berries!

Blueberries!

Even Jake got into the act.

View of Otter Point to the South

View of Sand Beach to the North

On our second full day, we were a little bummed that the weather was so cold and rainy, but we got out anyway! Our stop at Cadillac Mountain was altogether unimpressive, except in cold, blusteriness, due to the lack of view from the rain. Afterwards, we decided to check out the walk around Jordan Pond. It was still raining, but everyone put on raincoats and off we went. Steve had told everyone to wear flipflops since it was going to be wet and rainy and we wouldn't be hiking, so we were not necessarily wearing great footwear. Even if we had worn tennis shoes, they would have been completely drenched as there were large puddles covering the trail. After a time, Genna started to get blisters from the shoes she'd opted to wear, so I decided to let her go barefoot. Initially appalled, Steve acquiesced, and everyone except him traversed the remainder of the trail barefoot. Everyone's moods improved because they were delighted to be doing something that is normally taboo. The first section of the trail was pretty easy, followed by lots of rocks to traverse over, followed by endless wooden boardwalks that were quite slick with the rain and even rotten in places. All in all, we moved slow as turtles, and our rain jackets were supersaturated by the end, but we made some awesome memories on this trail! And Genna walked the whole way minus about 10 minutes at the end. Not too bad!