Driving Through Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park's main area is on Mt Desert Island near Bar Harbor. It is the oldest national park east of the Mississippi. The park consists of mountains, ocean shores, woodlands and lakes. There is a 27 mile loop trail which is a good way to get familiar with the park. So that is what we did on our first day there.
We first drove through Bar Harbor, which is a neat looking small town but very busy in the summer. We didn't even see anywhere to park it was so crowded and just drove through it.

We drove into the park driving by lakes and through trees and then took a side loop to Sand Beach.

Sand Beach is set in an inlet between the granite mountains and rocky shores with pounding surf. The water rarely gets over 55 degrees so though a very popular spot to stop there wasn't any swimming going on. We love our Pacific Ocean but the Atlantic is very dramatic as well.

We drove under granite bridges and saw some people going on the Carriage rides.

Between 1913 and 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., financed and directed the construction of 57 miles of Carriage Roads for the use of hikers, bikers, horse riders, and horse-drawn carriages on the island. This diverse network of woodland “broken-stone” roads is free of motor vehicles. There are 45 miles of roads within Acadia National Park and some of these allow for cross-country skiing and limited snowmobiling.

We continued on the loop taking in all the beauty of this amazing area.

Stay tuned for more adventures in Acadia National Park.