New England Day 8: Acadia: Beech Mountain, Tidepools and Boat Ride

Saturday morning, we started our exploration of Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island. After a yummy breakfast to the hotel, the kids worked on completing the hotel scavenger hunt. We really enjoyed the hotel we stayed in as there were lots of activities for the kids including rope swings right outside our door, a small playground and lots of games. A path at the back of the grounds leads to Acadia National Park. One of the favorites was that cereal, juice and fresh fruit were available until 11 pm each day!

Megan with the large chair.

Megan selfie with chair.

Matthew selfie with chair.

Sarah selfie with chair.

Matthew's rock.

Megan's rock.

View from the road down into the harbor.

Megan, Me, Sarah, U and Matthew on top of Cadillac Mountain. At 1529 feet, it's the tallest point in the park.

Panoramic with Matthew and Sarah from Cadillac Mountain. Lots of granite everywhere. In Acadia National Park, one must stay on the trail or the granite. (Yes, this is the actual rule.)

Megan enjoying climbing on the granite.

The area seen in this picture is where we went hiking the next day. The peninsula is Otter Point. A little to the left is Gorham Mountain and a bit further left is Great Head.

Sarah and Me on Cadillac Mountain.

U with Eagle Lake in the background on the drive down Cadillac Mountain.

Panoramic taken as we were coming down Cadillac Mountain.

Megan, Me and Matthew on our hike to Beech Mountain. This wasn't a hike we had planned on doing but when we learned that the fire tower was open, we decided to do it. The hike to the tower was a short 0.4 miles with lots of scrambling up rocks.

Sarah, Megan, Matthew, U and Me on the hike up with the Cranberry Islands behind us.

Sarah, as seen from the fire tower.

View from the fire tower.

Panoramic from the fire tower.

There's some fall color amidst all those evergreens.

Me taller than the fire tower.

Matthew taller than the fire tower.

U taller than the fire tower.

Matthew with the fire tower.

On the hike down, we hiked 0.7 miles and had some great views of Long Pond.

We then hiked the Ship Harbor Trail, stopping to look for sea life along the way. Here, Sarah is peering into some seaweed.

View at the end of Ship Harbor Trail. 

Megan, Sarah, Me and Matthew

Peering into one of the tidepools.

Matthew, Me and Megan on the boat ride we took out of Bass Harbor. It was great! Very informative. I would highly recommend it if you visit Acadia.

Bass Harbor.

A few shots of the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. This is what is on the Acadia National Park quarter.

A couple double crested cormorant

Cabin on one of the islands we saw from the cruise.

A bunch of birds, mostly double crested cormorants. We did see one greater cormorant as well.

Houses on Gott Island whose harbor is not accessible at low tide (when our cruise was). There is a 10-12 foot tide delta and no electricity on the island.

Look at all that lovely pink granite! Most of the granite in Acadia is pink, although most is weathered so it is not so vibrant.

One of 7 bald eagles we saw on the boat ride.

More birds.

A couple of grey seals.

The nose of a harbor seal is poking out of the water.

More grey seals.

A lighthouse in the distance.

Some more birds.

Love the surf.

A pair of bald eagles. Bald eagles mate for life. The female builds a nest that can weigh up to a ton.

More grey seals.

Grey seal.

Out in the open ocean!

This was our guide and his wife. He did a great job telling us about Maine history, teaching us about the islands, identifying animals and teaching us about the fishing (aka lobstering) industry in this area of the country. A few facts we learned are that there are over 3000 islands in Maine and many are owned by conservation groups since otherwise they are taxed as oceanfront property regardless of whether or not the coastline is usable (most isn't). There are more miles of shoreline in Maine than in California.

We stopped by a salmon fishing farm. There were a lot of salmon inside (around 40,000 fish per pen). It's a great location to raise them as there is lots of clean water moving in and out every six hours with the tides. It takes two years for them to fully develop.

Another view of the salmon.

More of the pretty pink rocks.

The gray granite boulder was carried there at some point by a glacier.

We hauled up a lobster trap belonging to our captain.

There's quite a few lobster and crab inside.

One of the crabs. Generally they are thrown back in as they are worth a lot less than the lobsters. It's a lot more work to get the meat out of a crab versus a lobster as well.

One of the lobsters. Captain Eli was explaining how you determine the sex of the lobster and whether the lobster is the right size to keep (vs too big or too small).

Of the three lobsters captured, one was the right size to keep. In general, about 75% of the lobsters caught are thrown back in the ocean. Lobster fishing has actually increased the lobsters in Maine as many lobsters feed on food in the traps and then are thrown back in repeatedly.

All those buoys are lobster traps. The color pattern on the buoy indicates the owner of the trap.

We saw three porpoise, including a mom with a baby (on the left).

The boat.

We went to Thurston's Lobster Pound for dinner. Here are the lobsters U and Me ate for dinner.

Me with her lobster.

U with his lobster.

Playing There's a Yeti in My Spaghetti at the hotel.

Megan and Matthew carving pumpkins.

Megan and Matthew with their finished pumpkins. (Matthew's holes are very little.)

Sarah with her pumpkin.