Acadia National Park: East

Blackwoods Campground

Downtown Bar Harbor

Located at the Southern tip of the Eastern part of Acadia NP, Blackwoods Campground is a beautiful wooded area with a short trail to an ocean overlook. It is accessible to free bus routes covering the main section of the park which we took advantage of a couple of times (dogs travel free, too). We loved the town of Bar Harbor, in spite of the thousands of dispatched tourists/passengers from the massive cruise ships, clogging up the town! The locals get the benefit of the income, but boy oh boy are the streets crowded – more by foot traffic from the ship passengers. That’s why the car traffic was less than expected based on the amount of visitors. And this was after the summer holidays when the children were back in school. But the town has a high cute factor and the amount of restaurants and gift shops outdistances any town we’ve seen before. The town grid is only about 20 x 20 streets, so it’s very compact. Cheryl’s favorite store was one suggested by Laura and Bill Michaud (see previous post) called, Bark Harbor. It was a dog-centric store but had a few other animal gifts as well. Yep, we dropped a few dollars there, for sure.

Bindi and Harvey at Sand Beach

Colin and Bindi had excursions into the wilds, hikes that were challenges, especially Cadillac Mountain Ridge Trail which started in the campground and led up the park’s tallest mountain. The hiking maps stated that the path was dog friendly, and it was, until a 6′ high vertical boulder appeared with a steel rung sunk into it. This was to help hikers up the boulder; Colin had a reluctant Bindi at first, but convinced her to ascend eventually. Descending was more of a challenge…

A lovely surprise was getting together with an English couple, Steve and Kathryn Goodenough (yes, it’s their real name!) and dog Harvey. They have been in the U.S. for quite a few years and currently live in Annapolis where we met them through mutual friends (thank you Heinz and Verena Thoma). We had a spectacular time together, enjoying hiking (Colin and Steve + 2 dogs on the Ocean Path to Otter Point and back to Great Head via Sand Beach) and relaxing/shopping (Cheryl and Kathy). Poor Kathy had recently had a foot injury so was a perfect companion to the careful-walking wounded Cheryl. The Goodenough’s purchased a van similar to ours but made by Winnebago, so we had a lot in common.

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