Acadia Hikes; Ocean Path Trail and Wonderland Trail

The featured image above was sunrise at our campground on Friday morning.

Two more hikes accomplished in the Acadia National Park!  The views from both trails were simply outstanding.  While I tried to get some good photos, it just does not capture the grandeur of being here and seeing with your own eyes.  In the last three days, we did the Ocean Path Trail and the Wonderland Trail, both hikes in the National Park.  And took a day off in between!

Campground 

Our campground (the Narrows Too Camp Resort), has been bustling the last week.  There were about 25 RVs that came in to prepare to take off on a tour of the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

We spoke to a couple going on this trip and I looked it up online as well.  The tour company is Fantasy Tours (link) and they queue up here at Bar Harbar and then travel for 27 or more days into Canada with most everything paid except for fuel and some meals.

They don’t come cheap either at $5,700 per couple and up based on the trip length.  You get to see 10 different stopovers with many bus tours and they normally travel 150 miles at a time and stay a couple of days at each place.

Our normal mode of travel is about 150-200 miles at a time and then stay in that location for a week.  Would we take a group caravan tour one of these days?  Maybe.  It might be fun.  But, a lot of moving, unhooking, and hooking the coach back up again.

Weather 

We have had some hot and humid weather the last 5-6 days.  In the low 80s with high humidity between 70-90%.  Feels very muggy.  Strange as we are so far north.  The days that start off being foggy will turn into the humid days.  It reminds me of Florida in November.

Where has summer gone?

Someone posted on FB recently that June and July were both gone in a blink of the eye and now we are well into August.  Yes, for sure that my relative sense of time is much faster now for some reason.  I remember being in grade school and the summers were a lengthy event each year.

Then as the years have gone by it seems that a season slips by before you know it.  But, like I have said before, now that I’m retired and very mobile, we should not have any real winter weather.  Just keep driving south when it starts to get cold.

Wonderland Trail

This trail is just down from Ship Harbor Trail (literally just down the road) on the “quiet” side of Acadia and it’s a very similar hike with a very similar feel.

Wonderland Trail is an easy 1.6 mile walk through a thick evergreen forest out to a beautiful coastline with panoramic water views. So you’ll get woods, coast and water all-in-one (big scenic bang-for-the-buck). This trail is flatter than Ship Harbor that we hiked first and is very easy as it is not as rocky.

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Wonderland trail
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Wonderland Trail
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Wonderland Trail
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A discarded lobster trap

Ocean Path Trail

This is the one that I have been waiting for.  It is the single most popular hike in Acadia.  The trail is a two mile out and then back on the same path, so it comes in at just less than four miles.

It follows the spectacular Park Loop Road that winds around the eastern side of Mt Desert Island (MDI).  This is the popular side and can get crazy busy.

This hike has everything from incredible panoramic, high rocky cliffs to a natural sand beach.  I had heard that if you only wanted to do one hike, this would be the one!  The photos below are of the Ocean Path Trail:

Sand Beach
This is Sand Beach and the sand is naturally created. A foggy morning.  Water temps in the 50’s.  No swimming for me.
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This sign explains the unusual pocket beach.
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Sand Beach
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Looking back at the beach from the trail.  Look at the fog laying across the scene.
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The trail starts out along the road and is quite easy at first. Although it does have some inclines.

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The thunder Hole
The Thunder Hole. A cave at surf level that roars with the wave crashes.

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All ages were out hiking on this one.

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The trail becomes rocky in some places.

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The fog really adds to the scenic views, but I was wishing for clear skies to see a long way.
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Maine has some very rugged coastline.
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This couple was way out on a rock ledge.  It can’t be that bad.
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A lonely tree.
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Me at the end of the trail. Now it was 2 miles back to the start.

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