Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Acadia National Park :: Park Loop Road and Sunrise

Hello everyone!

Acadia National Park is about 6 hours away from Boston, and David and I went back and forth about visiting... Would it be worth the drive?  I mean.. 6 hours is not day-trip-able, ya know? haha

Well, we ended up making the trip and stayed for 4 days, and we can now say that it was definitely worth the trip for us!  It's not the biggest national park we've visited, but it's a very unique one in that it can be enjoyed 3 different ways -- by driving, biking, and hiking!  



and it is absolutely gorgeous!


We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast, and the inn keepers recommended that we begin by doing the driving tour of the park.  The park is laid out so that hiking, biking, and driving roads are all separate from one another, so we hopped on the Park Loop Road (the car one) to get a little taste of Acadia!


The Park Loop Road is mostly one way, so once you begin, you are kind of committed to finishing the drive  haha.  They say that the loop takes 30-40 minutes to complete, but for us, it took all day. Every quarter of a mile or so, there are lookouts/hiking trails, and we couldn't help but stop at every single one to explore  haha




I loved that none of the parts of the park was blocked off, so that you could really go exploring to your heart's content--even all the way down to the ocean from the top of the cliff!


You do have to be careful though, because during high-tide, the water does try to race you back up the cliff.  and you probably don't want to get overrun by 40 degree water!




While I was racing the ocean, David was busy climbing boulders of all kinds.  If it was climbable, he was there  haha



I was more into taking photos..

of different colored rocks  haha
I think it's fascinating how the rock formations are colored.. but I realize that not everyone finds that interesting, so moving right along... 
to different marine animals that somehow ended up on top of a cliff!
how they ended up so far up is quite the mystery.  maybe seagulls? 


(and this is why Janny and David's Park Loop Road trip took all day instead of 30 minutes)


Everywhere we looked, there were such incredible views.
Usually, when people think 'vacation', they often think of places like Cancun with its warm waters and sandy beaches, but there's something incredibly beautiful and powerful about this rugged and tough scenery as well.




My favorite hiker  =)


The Park Loop Road also leads to the top of the Cadillac Mountain.  We were told that this mountain is the tallest mountain on the Eastern Seaboard where you can see the ocean! Also, you can be the first to witness the sunrise in the United States for a few months out of the year on this mountain!  

The day we visited, we had to put on all of our winter clothes (parka, mittens, beanies.. the whole nine yards), but it didn't even matter once the sun started to rise because it was so breathtakingly beautiful.


here she comes!!
she was a little shy that day, and it took awhile for her to fully emerge, but her entrance was definitely worth waiting for.



Having greeted the morning (at something like 4:40 AM), we dragged our frozen bodies straight back to bed and snoozed until breakfast!  haha

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

--Janny



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