Schoodic Point

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Our drive to Acadia National Park was an easy one, the only thing odd about it was the ever increasing percentage of RV’s we started to see as we got closer to our destination.  Interstate 95 is the primary route when heading north along the coast and that proved to be a beautiful if not boring drive with nothing but trees to gaze upon on either side.  The trip took us about four hours, which has become a bit of the norm for how far we typically go on a travel day.  After arriving at our campground the typical routine of setup begun, this time with a surprising amount of heat and sunshine beaming on our backs.

Throughout the first night and probably till about noon on our first day here it was nothing but overcast and rain, with very few breaks.  Certainly a nice intro to real Maine weather I suppose.  We gave up on the idea of doing anything exciting the first morning and took care of chores by heading to a nearby grocery store and laundromat.  I honestly can’t remember the last time I was at a laundromat but what I don’t remember is needing as many quarters as this one seemed demand.  Perhaps it’s just in this area with the large number of campers that the cost was so high, but I can’t imagine that given what it would take to do laundry there on a weekly basis that anyone local is without their own washer and dryer.

We did our supply run at Walmart, which we are becoming big fans of, not that we will ever use it when at home, but when traveling we know that as long as there is a Walmart in easy driving range we can get ahold of anything we might happen to need.  Civilization only ends once you past the last Walmart!  🙂

The rain finally broke and the sun came out shortly after lunch allowing us to formulate some afternoon/evening plans.  I am always after great opportunities to take pictures so I planned an evening visit to Schoodic Point to be able to do some photography while the sun was going down.  As a quick side note, the sun shines a lot longer up here then back home at this time of year.  Sunrise each day is around 5am (with it clearly light by as early as 4:30am) and the sun sets a good bit after 8pm.

Schoodic Point is the rocky tip of a peninsula that is just North East of Mount Desert Island (where the main section of Acadia National Park is).  The destination while only about four miles as the crow flies from Mount Desert Island is close to an hour drive which turned out to be quite an experience on it’s own.  We drove a number of secondary, off the beaten path roads on our way there and even though we didn’t take any pictures en route I can’t image they would capture the sense of the place.  Amazing grasslands, small fishing villages, and we even spotted a number of eagle nests.

The bottom section of the Schoodic peninsula actually is an extension of Acadia National Park and we found a number of ‘side of the street’ locations to stop to enjoy the type of coast you only find in Maine, additionally it was low tide so there was a lot to be seen along the way.

Once we reached our destination we set off exploring.  This section of coast is extremely rocky, and I’m not just talking about a boulder here and there, it is one very large rock outcrop that just begs you to crawl around on it and explore the nooks and crannys.  It was a good bit before sunset so we had plenty of time to watch the waves crashing in, bringing with a return to high tide.  During this time the kids managed to work up a good scare in both Wendy and I as they continued to explore how close to large drop offs they could get as the waves pounded below.  While we were gazing into the ocean beyond we even managed to spy a group of dolphins.

One thing that made the evening pass a bit more quickly was that we had decided to have dinner actually at the point.  We had loaded up our camping grill and a cooler so that we could have a nice hot dinner as we stared out into the ocean.  Nothing like the smell of a steak on the grill and a cup of red wine to help enjoy the evenings last few moments of sunlight.

Once the sun finally diminished to just a faint glow we decided to start our way back.  It was a bit after 9pm and quite dark by the time we found our way back to the Cottage (no we didn’t get lost).  Thankfully our first full day near Acadia didn’t disappoint and we are eager to see what the rest of the week brings!

 

 

 

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