Misty

It was misty this morning, and it stayed that way for much of the day. The mist was accompanied by fog too; hikes to viewpoints will wait for another day.

I started my day at the Asticou Azalea Garden. As I was driving there I was thinking I might need to go back again on a sunny day to see the reflections of the flowers in the pond. I was quite surprised to see the azaleas decorating the space above the water and decorating the smooth surface of the water with reflected color.

The colors of the flowers offset the gray of the sky perfectly.

My next garden stop was Thuya Garden, also in Northeast Harbor. I chose to park by the water and walk up the Asticou Terrace trail to get to the gardens. This garden contains more summer-flowering plants so it showed more green than color. That made the few flowering plants really stand out. I'd love to see this garden in peak bloom but unless I change my Acadia visiting schedule I suspect I'm not likely to see it then. I suppose I could convince myself to add a third Acadia visit.

Next stop? Well, it was really two stops. I passed a pond that pulled my eyes as I drove to Northeast Harbor this morning. I looked at my map and found it wore the name Long Pond. That seemed a bit odd since there is a Long Pond on the western side of Mount Desert Island. When I looked for more information this evening I found references to this eastern side of the island Long Pond as "Little Long Pond".

As I drove back to the east, I passed a parking area that indicated it was for Long Pond. I pulled in and started walking. The walk was longer than I expected, through woods decorated with many colors of moss. When the trail started through a grove of skinny trees it started to not look like a trail any more. I turned around at that point, thinking I could easily lose the trail on the way out. Back at the car, I headed east once again. I quickly came to the pond and a small amount of next to the road parking. There was room for me, so I stopped. As I got out of the car I saw where the trail I was on earlier ended. I could have walked back on the road. Ah, no problem. I had a good walk in the woods, and finding a spot to park at the end of the pond allowed me to head out walking again - this time at my desired destination. I walked along the side of the pond, watching as the fog started to roll along the water. Beautiful.

I finished my day in Acadia, with a walk along the path next to Park Loop Road from Sand Beach to just past Thunder Hole (and back again).