Day 73 & 74 - Acadia National Park, Maine &Drive from Ellsworth, Maine to Twin Mountain, New Hampshire

Day 73 – Acadia National Park, Maine (http://www.acadia.net/anp/)
September 09, 2008

After we had a rainless night the sun came up shining again as we woke up so we decided to make an early start on the day as the forecast called for clouds and 70% chance of showers for the afternoon. The owners of the campground told us to drive up Cadillac Mountain (http://www.acadiamagic.com/CadillacMountain.html) first before the clouds moved in. This mountain is 1530 feet high and the road is nicely paved without potholes or bumps. On top of the mountain is a fair size parking lot which was 75% full by the time we got there. But the view was beautiful as the pictures will show. However, it was But also very windy and unless you had yourself roped to your car you could have been picked up by the wind and been deposited along the coast below in Bar Harbour, the local Banff of Acadia Park.

We were also told to take the one-way loop around the island as it is a most scenic drive. It took us 3 tries to find ‘the loop’. We are now quite familiar with the road to the visitor centre and to Cadillac Mountain, having passed it that many times. By the time we had found ‘the loop’ it had started to rain but we took it anyway. It was indeed a very nice drive with at times a nice view of the coast and the ocean on the left and the beautiful forests on the right. A very few of the trees had begun to turn colour but overall we are here just to soon to see the fall colours for which New England is famous. At the end we drove to the town of Bar Harbour to have a gawk at the boats and such in the harbour. And boats they are: some of them are pretty pricey and that is true not just for this harbour but also for the other small harbours around here. The vessels today were nothing like we have been seeing in Nova Scotia where the harbours are ‘working’ harbours with primarily fishing boats. Only fancy-dancy recreational boats need apply here.

I do not know much about the coast of Maine but it seems that there is a lot of money here and there are lots and lots of tourists in this resort section of the state. I think that on the Tuesday after the Labour Day weekend all the seniors (62 years is considered a senior here) go on holidays. It was pretty busy in Acadia National Park and the roads leading to them and we were the youngest couple here it felt like. But any way we enjoyed our day, in the rain, at Acadia National Park.

Pictures for today can be found here.


Day 74 – Drive from Ellsworth, Maine to Twin Mountain, New Hampshire
September 10, 2008

We had decided the previous evening to move inland to get away from the rainy coast. I guess the mist, fog and rain was getting to us after 2 months of it. This also means we will not be moving to the coast after all even if there is one of those old, charming big houses for sale within our price range. (As if there was much chance of that!)

But before we went west Leo wanted to go up Cadillac Mountain again (and use our $20 pass one more day, which was only good for this one state park) to take a few more pictures but this time with sunshine instead of clouds. While he did so I worked on catching up on some writing of our blogs. Hence we had a bit of a slow start to our day.

Going west and inland took us through some really nice scenery again and the sun stayed with us all day. Again we were treated to these big, big old houses from the turn of the 19th century or earlier. They look so romantic and I can picture life around them. Some of them are really well kept while others are, unfortunately, left unattended. These are houses you find in the small towns and cities. The big, big houses you find outside the cities and towns are new and do not have the romantic look to them. I mentioned to Leo that in the olden days the rich people lived in town and now the rich live just outside town. Times have changed.

We drove out of Maine and into New Hampshire. By 4 o’clock it was time to look for a campsite and we ended up in the White Mountains Region (http://www.visitwhitemountains.com/) of New Hampshire. We found a really nice campground close to Twin Mountain called Ammonoosuc Campground (www.ucampnh.com/ammonoosuc) and besides 2 other campers and 2 seasonal campers we were the only ones there. We were told to just pick a spot we liked and so we did: close to the wash and laundry room so I could do a wash while we ate supper. I have to say I am feeling ‘at home’ again with this campground as it is laid out like the campgrounds in our parks with a large area to set up your tent or trailer and trees all around you to give some privacy (which we did not really need as we were the only ones in this part of the campground). Another thing that made us feel at home was the bear warning signs posted in the bathroom and at the shelters for the tenting spots. I could have used the bathroom 7 times before I had to use a toilet twice or taken 4 showers and not used the same one twice. And all this luxury was just for the two of us. But we were only to camp here for the one night so there was not much time to really enjoy it all.
Sorry, but there are no pictures for today as the roads were again narrow. The ones from Cadillac Mountain Leo took in the morning were included in yesterday’s pictures.