standing tall

Two trees, a rocky coastline, gathering clouds, an impending storm...

Schooner Head, Acadia National Park

layered

Bands of color form layers as I look out over the ocean from high on the Gorham Mountain trail in Acadia National Park.

ever green

A lone evergreen stands close to the edge of the water highlighted by the white trunks of bare birch trees. A small swath of color remains for a while longer.

curves

Let your eye follow the curves of the water, looking back to the mountains and the puffs of clouds.

photos! Acadia

Photos from last weekend's too short trip to Acadia are ready for viewing in this gallery. You'll find a mix of park scenes and splashes of autumn color.

images of autumn, Acadia:

Interested in words? You can find my ramblings in the blog entries tagged Acadia 2014-10.

rain or snow?

Wow... it turned out to be a good thing that we came home yesterday. I just checked the weather in Bangor and Augusta (since we had to drive through there on our way home) and it is snowing now in both places. Denise prefers to drive on dry roads; she said that wet rainy roads are better than snowy and maybe slippery roads.

The National Weather Service page for Bangor say that the conditions right now are "snow fog". I think I remember that funny name from last winter. It's very descriptive, isn't it?

It's cold and rainy at home today. I'm going to stay in even when Denise goes out walking. Sometimes I think she's a little crazy...

Oh! I've been watching as Denise wanders through the photos that jumped into her camera during our travels. I like this photo that my friend Blue & I posed for on our sunny day visit to the Schoodic Peninsula!

--- Rover

stop for a view

This is another photo from the bridge at the town line between Tremont and Southwest Harbor. I've stopped here many times over the years, sometimes catching wonderful light, sometimes not. I've seen it in what I would consider interesting light both in sunshine and in clouds. This was a (slightly decorated) blue sky stop.

heading home

The weather forecast convinced Denise that we should head home a day early. Today was chilly with rain starting mid-day. It wasn't the rain, it was the winter storm warning that got to her.

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CARIBOU ME 300 PM EDT SAT NOV 1 2014 ...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING TO 1 AM EST MONDAY... * ACCUMULATIONS...SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 7 TO 14 INCHES ALONG WITH TRACE ACCUMULATIONS OF ICE POSSIBLE. * LOCATIONS...NORTHEAST...EAST CENTRAL...DOWNEAST MAINE. * HAZARD TYPES...HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WIND. * TIMING...SATURDAY EVENING THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING. ...Forecast courtesy of the National Weather Service

Maybe it won't snow, but the thought of driving in possibly slippery conditions (tomorrow) didn't sound like fun.

We did a short walk this morning, then we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see if there were interesting clouds. Brr! It was cold up there. When we started up the mountain the thermometer in the car said it was 43 degrees. It dropped to 35 degrees at the top and it was really really windy. I stayed in my hiding spot in Denise's camera bag because I was afraid that I would blow away. Denise told me she had a hard time not getting blown over when she was trying to stand in one spot. We didn't stay too long in that cold strong wind.

The rain didn't start until we reached Augusta - but it followed us from there all of the way home. (Oh! I think maybe we were driving into the storm. I guess that means it didn't follow us...)

Even though our wandering time at Acadia was a day shorter than planned, it was a good escape.

--- Rover

hiking afternoon

I was a bit surprised when we headed to the other side of the island this morning. I thought we were going to hike up Gorham Mountain in the morning - but Denise said she wanted to wait until it was a little bit warmer. As it turned out, bouncing up that (little) mountain in the afternoon was good.

We started our walk at the Sand Beach parking lot, walking on Ocean Path until we reached the Gorham Mountain trailhead. Then we walked up and up, starting in the woods then reaching the rocky top of the mountain. There were wonderful views... we could see all of the way back to Sand Beach!

--- photo by phone ---

From the big mound of rocks and the sign marking the high point of the trail, we kept heading in the same direction to head down the other side. Denise was careful to watch for trail markers so we wouldn't get lost. The markers sometimes were cairns (explicitly placed chunks of rocks) or short lines of blue paint. I tried to watch for the markers too but some of the blue paint was a little bit faded. With both of us looking we were able to stay on the trail.

The character of the trail changed as we headed downhill. There were sections of dirt trail, sections of granite rock tilted downhill, and at the end, sections where I had to hop from one rock to the next. Can you see the trail?

--- photo by phone ---

Denise said we're going to walk some flat trails tomorrow.

--- Rover

quietside morning

A chilly morning led me to flip my plans for the day leaving an uphill walk for (potentially) warmer afternoon temperatures.

I started with a quick visit to see the remaining muted color at the Asticou Azalea Gardens, an uphill walk to Thuya Gardens where I found just a few flowers still blooming. Next I headed to the quietside of the island for a walk in the woods. While I prefer to walk in the open I enjoy the Ship Harbor trail. The turnaround point is on a rocky point looking out at the ocean. It's a good spot to sit and soak in the scenery.

The loop road that led to the trail (and to Bass Harbor Light) crosses a bridge at the town line between Tremont and Southwest Harbor on a spot that always calls to me to stop. Luckily it's in a spot where there is plenty of space to pull off of the road since I needed to look at the water, reflections of clouds, simple beauty.

--- photo by phone ---

solitude

Sunshine pulled me a bit further up the coast this morning to visit one of my favorite spots in Acadia, the Schoodic Peninsula. It was a place of solitude, a place I shared only with the birds for most of my visit. An occasional person stopped by, looked and walked a bit, headed back out. I enjoyed the quiet, listening to the sounds of the ocean and the cry of the sea gulls.

Back on Mount Desert Island I turned to Park Loop road, driving and stopping as the scenery called to me. The leaves are definitely past peak but there were still splashes of color that pulled my eyes.

Clouds started to decorate the sky; I followed them to the top of Cadillac Mountain where I walked for a bit. The light seems harsh to me, perhaps because of the angle of the sun above the horizon. Still, it was beautiful.

Before I stopped moving I walked from my home away from home to the shore to catch a glimpse of Bar Island bathed in late day light. At low tide a sand bar provides passage to the island; as you can see from the photo below the tide was high.

- photo by phone -

It looks like tomorrow will be a good walking (weather) day. I think it's time to decide where to wander - although knowing my usual behavior I'll stop wherever my eyes pull me!

rusty passage

As I drove along the edge of New Hampshire and into southern Maine the afternoon light was pure magic. The road was lined with trees wearing rust-colored leaves, beautiful.

Photos from today are mind images only... it's not a good idea to stop on the side of a limited access (no pedestrians allowed) highway.

driving soon

Later today we'll be jumping into the car and heading to the northeast. Denise will be doing the driving and I will be looking through the windows to see if there are any leaves left on the trees. I'll only be able to see the trees for part of the drive where the sun is still above the horizon.

When I look at the map of our route it feels like the drive will be a lot of hours. I know that it's always worth the time to get to Acadia though.

route from home to Bar Harbor, courtesy of Google Maps

The weather forecast looks good for the first two days but the next two are supposed to be chilly (in the low 40s) and wet. I guess Denise already saw the forecast because I see she has a rain jacket and good layers ready to go. Blue & I have a warm spot set up in Denise's camera bag. I like to peek out but if it's raining I will stay under cover. I don't like getting wet!

We don't have actual plans for our wanders. Our walking routes will be partially dictated by the weather; if it's really wet I think we'll probably stay on flat surfaces. I know that I want to bounce on the rocks of the Schoodic Peninsula so I've asked Denise to schedule a Schoodic wander on one of the days that are supposed to be dry. She really likes it there.

I'm sure we'll get to the Jesup Path too. This photo is from a visit last fall that was a couple of weeks early than this trip so we might not see any bright leaves this time.

on Jesup Path in Acadia, October 2013Soon...

--- Rover

dreaming

It's officially autumn and I think it must be time to visit Acadia again. I've just started bugging Denise to put a (quick) trip on the calendar.

While I'm waiting I've been wandering through the photos from our Acadia visits in May and June. I'm pretty sure we will be visiting after the leaves have turned from green to bright colors to brown. We'll probably see bare branches on our next trip; it seems that the autumn colors are popping out earlier than usual this year.

--- Rover

late day light on Cadillac Mountain, June 2014