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Acadia National Park, Maine
I would've waited till the oceans fell away and all the sunken cities would reveal themselves to you
Longtime fans of the slideshows will know that this was not my first trip to Maine. Of course so many trips to the same place doesn’t preclude me from taking the same picture again and even using the same (or suspiciously familiar) descriptions again and again. After all, how many different ways can you really describe the same classic Maine coastline and the pink rocks and the gathering fog?
For me to drive to Maine, all I need is a car, some gas, an EZ-Pass (or toll money) and a whole lot of patience. There is nothing preventing me from right now stopping mid sentence and driving to Maine. It is historically an eight and a half hour drive over the Tappan Zee, through the most boring parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, across a sliver of New Hampshire and then you’re home free but only halfway there. Acadia National Park is pretty far into Maine, and there’s no way you can avoid being stuck somewhere on local roads or the numbing effects of all of those pine trees on the highway.
Of all the times I have been to Maine, it has been a good fifteen years since I drove there. My favorite way to get there now is a quick flight to Bangor’s impossibly small airport and then driving just the last hour and a half to Bar harbor. I’ve tried other options like Portland’s Jetport (cheap flights but too long of a drive after landing) and even right into Bar Harbor (annoying transfer at Boston Logan, crazy small planes and then outrageously expensive rental cars), but truthfully nothing beats Bangor. If you take a morning flight on a clear day, by afternoon you can be out on the water, looking back at the island you can this far to see.
It’s hard to find new things to do up at Acadia National Park. Over these many years I have hiked just about every trail on the park’s eastern side and most (if not all) of the better trails on the western side. I have ridden horse carriages, whale watch boats and Island Explorer buses, visited small museums and small towns and most of the shops and restaurants around. On this trip I actually found something new, or at least kind of new. A boat ride that specifically focused on lighthouses, mostly on the Frenchman’s Bay side, and was actually a quite nice three hour tour. The same company also offers a nine hour version of the tour that stops by 18 lighthouses in both Maine and Canada, but honestly, the three hour version was enough for me.
I keep saying that I have been to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park and Maine a lot, but how many times is “a lot.” Honestly I’ve been there so many times that after a while you kind of lose count. I know that this is at least my 25th visit there, but it might be my 28th or even my 30th. And I also know that it won’t be my last.
One of the advantages about visiting a place so many times is that it’s very easy to avoid a checklist mentality, something I try like hell to avoid when traveling. If the weather is bad or something seems annoyingly busy then no worries, you can always try and do it next time. So if there is a really long wait for popovers at Jordan Pond House, maybe its worth hanging out in the store or on the balcony or under the arbor until they text you that a table is ready, or maybe it’s not. It doesn’t much matter since you know that in a few years (at most) you’ll be there once again facing the same exact choice you’re facing right now, and one you’ve faced so many, many times before.
There are three ways to get to the Thuya Garden in Northeast Harbor, and I’ve tried all three. First you can park on Route 3 and walk up the spectacular (although steep) terraces. Second, you can hike in from the park, the trails connect back to the park over Eliot Mountain. Third, you can just drive there, which sounds like the easiest but can often be the most harrowing, as the two way traffic road is really sized for one way traffic, at best.
However you get there (we drove this time), what you’ll find is a wonderful hidden gem and easily my second favorite garden on the island.
We end this trip on a foggy night in Agamont Park, with the glowing moose above Geddy’s knowing that it’s never really saying goodbye as much as it’s planning on saying “you again?” in another year or two at most.
