New England Day 9: Acadia: Gorham Mountain, Sand Beach, Great Head and Bar Island

A couple of deer outside our room.

U, Megan, Me and Matthew at Thunder Hole.

Sarah.

Thunder Hole. A few hours before high tide, the water really shoots up here.

We walked along the Ocean Path for a bit. It was lovely.

There are lots of cairns in Acadia to mark the trails. They come in quite handy at times. This one is on Gorham Mountain Trail.

We took the Cadillac Cliffs side trail which follows granite ledges along a cliff. There were some nice views along the way as well as a sea cave that had a spider and a bat inside. To get back to the main trail, we climbed up a couple of iron rungs.

Sarah with a small waterfall behind her. Not sure if it's always there or not.

Me and Megan walk under a granite rock slab on Cadillac Cliffs Trail.

View of the ocean peaking through the trees.

Sarah admires the views.

Following the ocean along to Otter Point.

Panoramic shot to the west.

Panoramic shot to the east.

Matthew. Cadillac Mountain is behind him although it's a bit hard to see due to the clouds.

Cheese!

Smiley Megan.

A couple views from along the trail.

Here Matthew, Me and Megan are at the top of Gorham Mountain, elevation 525 feet.

Megan was a trooper. Much of the trail was along granite.

Some pretty ferns.

A warning sign for a trail we did not take, but Sarah thought looked fun: the Beehive Trail.

Front of the Beehive Trail.

We stopped for a bit at Sand Beach.

Panoramic of the beach.

Sarah enjoyed getting her feet wet.

Matthew and Megan made a small castle and then created a path for water to fill the moat.

Some of the water inlet.

Yes, the castle was quite a ways from the ocean.

Matthew and Megan with the castle.

Cleaning off their hands after all that work.

We then hiked the Great Head Trail which took us around a small peninsula.

Matthew admiring the views.

Egg Rock Lighthouse in the distance.

U and Me at the top of Great Head, elevation 145 feet.

Megan and Me. In typical Acadia fashion, a lot of the climbing was on rock.

We had some nice views. Otter Point is in the distance.

Panoramic with Matthew in the distance.

Picture to the west. The Beehive is the mound in the center of the shot with the Gorham Mountain Trail on the left side. Sand Beach is also seen.

Me helping Megan down the trail. It was quite steep in places.

U, Megan and Matthew on the Island Explorer bus that we took from Sand Beach to Thunder Hole.

Our next stop was the Bar Island Trail. Bar Island is usually an island. However, for three hours around low tide, it is possible to walk from Mount Desert Island to Bar Island. There are lots of warning signs letting people know that just because you can walk across around low tide doesn't mean it's always accessible. They say a few times a year someone parks on the sand bar....

Matthew was VERY concerned that we would get stranded on Bar Island. We tried to reassure him that we would make sure it wouldn't happen. However, he still was not convinced. What worked was setting an alarm that would give us enough time to be off the island before the trail wasn't passable. (We passed on this tip to another family who had a child who was concerned as well.)

Bar Island Trail. We enjoyed walking the trail and looking for sea creatures. We saw lots of barnacles and periwinkles.

Beautiful leaves on Bar Island.

The leaves came from this tree.

Sarah, U, Matthew, Megan and Me at the highest point on Bar Island.

View of Bar Harbor from Bar Island.

Megan and Matthew completed their Acadia Junior Ranger packets and were sworn in.

Fire truck

Police vehicles

Sarah, Matthew and Megan each got a whoopie pie. They thought one was enough.

Me and U had some blueberry pie.