Acadia National Park

Today we visited Acadia National Park which is about 25 miles SE of the campground. We took Tinker with us since we would be gone most of the day.

We entered the Acadia National Park just north of Bar Harbor at the Hulls Cove Entrance and stopped at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center to pick up a brochure and map of the park. Before starting out on our drive through the Park, we watched a 15 minute audiovisual program about the history of the park.

Acadia National Park was established in 1916 by Woodrow Wilson and encompassed 6,000 acres. Today the park covers more than 40,000 acres because of philanthropists such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Charles W. Eliot, and George B. Dorr.

When we left the Visitor Center we took the Park Loop Road down to SR-233 west to SR- 102 and then south toward Southwest Harbor. We stopped at the Seawall Campground to check it out. According to the information on the campgrounds in Acadia National Park our motorhome is too large for them. The size restrictions for Seawall Campground states no RVs longer than 35' and taller than 11'8" and slides have to fit within the site pads. The roads inside Seawall Campground are narrow and the campsites are short and narrow, also.

We then went back north through Southwest Harbor where we stopped at a sandwich shop for lunch. The electricity was out in town because a traffic accident had taken out an electric pole north of town, so the only food available was cold since the restaurant used electricity to cook with. We sat outside at a table next to the restaurant to eat our lunch.

From Maine

We got back on SR-233 and went south on SR-3 until we reached Sargeant Drive and took it south. We took Sargeant Drive instead of SR-3 because it is a beautiful drive along side of Somes Sound. Somes Sound is the only fjord in the contiguous 48 states. It is a narrow, 168' deep gorge of salt water that was carved by glaciers.

From Maine

We took Sargeant Drive down to Northeast Harbor then east to Seal Harbor.

From Maine

From Seal Harbor we drove north through the inland portion of Acadia National Park passing by Bubble Rock, Cadillac Mountain and Beaver Dam Pond. Then we drove south along the Park Loop Road stopping at Thunder Hole. We parked the car and walked down to see Thunder Hole. As the tides come in through the granite channel, air gets trapped and escapes through Thunder Hole putting on quite a show. We got there while it was low tide, so we weren't treated to the show. We continued on to Otter Cliffs which are 100 foot pink granite cliffs rising straight out of the water.

We stayed on the Park Loop Road to go back to Seal Harbor and get on SR-3 to Blackwoods Campground. The limits on the RVs are no longer than 35' and no taller than 11'8", which lets us out. We already knew that our RV wouldn't' fit in the campgrounds at Acadia National Park and that there are 4 low-clearance bridges that would keep us from driving our motorhome there.

After leaving Blackwoods Campground we drove to Bar Harbor and looked at the sights there. Then it was time to head back to the RV. We got gas ($4.099 gal) in Ellsworth before heading back to the campground.

I've created a map showing our route through the Park.