We are doing our driving tour of Acadia and the surrounding area today. Our first stop is Seal Harbor. This wasn’t a planned stop. We got lost trying to get to the visitors center and decide to continue into Seal Harbor. I can’t say much about it. It’s just a little seaport town with few attractive features.
The skies were clearing as we drove up to the top of Mount Cadillac. This is the highest peak in Acadia and also is the highest point along the entire eastern seaboard of the United States. It towers at a majestic 1530 feet above sea level. The 360-degree views over the surrounding ocean and islands are nice. We hiked up to the USGS benchmarks marking the top of the mountain. These are located across the road from the tourist area.The staff at the Visitors’ center didn’t give us any new attractions to visit. They said we should basically do what we had planned to do. They also said most Californians are not very impressed by the Maine coast. This was a true statement. The east coast shore seems to be missing the interaction between the sea and rocky shore. The water just seems to slide against the rocks where the oceans of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington crash against the rocky shoreline.
We drove to Bar Harbor for an afternoon of walking, shopping, and lunch. Bar Harbor is a basic upper-class seaport tourist town with upscale art dealerships, a wide selection of hotels and trinket stores, and many restaurants. We selected the Parkside Restaurant for lunch and had very nice clam cake sandwiches served on a croissant with salad greens on the side. We also shared a cup of clam chowder.
We continued along the park loop drive to Sand Beach arriving shortly after the sun burned off the overcast. This is one of the few places in this area that has a sandy beach. Many people, including us, enjoyed the afternoon sunshine at this little stretch of beach.
