Acadia National Park

My first stop in DownEast Maine was at the Acadia National Park. I stayed at the Blackwoods Campground in the NP for two nights. This way I had enough time to do a few hikes. There are over 120 miles of hiking trails in the Acadia NP. The highest peak is Cadillac Mountain (466m), this is also the highest peak on the eastern shores north of Brazil. The views are spectacular, at least that’s written in the park guide. The weather was not very cooperative and delivered quite a bit of rain and a lot of fog which made for challenging hiking and photography conditions. Many trails go over inclined granite which is quite slippery, on top of that there are quite a few ladders and short climbing sections. Nevertheless, I made it back in one piece and it was a lot of fun. The fog made for a very calm and mystic atmosphere. The weather also made for less crowds, as soon as I left the main, flat hiking trails I was more or less alone.

Speaking of roads, one of the rather special features of this park is that it has about 50 miles of carriage roads, just for horses, horse carriage, hikers and bikers. No cars allowed. All the carriage roads were planned and built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who believed that national parks shouldn’t be opened to cars but enjoyed in a much slower pace.