Hiking in Acadia National Park

The weather pattern here is that if it's sunny in the morning, you'd better get out and enjoy it because it won't last. Monday started out nice so we got in the car and drove to the Acadia National Park. It's on the same island as Bar Harbor. They have informational signs at some of the trailheads, and I learned that the name of the island is Mount Desert Island. Apparently the first explorers thought that the mountain tops were bare. And they don't have a lot of vegetation, just a few scrub bushes, but up on Cadillac Mountain the rocks are colored with lichen. 

They have made some rough steps on the mountain top and the colorful lichen makes them look like something from a fairy tale. When I was a child reading "David and the Phoenix", I imagined some of the lands they visited looking something like this.

So needless to say, I really like it. My guys are the adventurous ones. After scouting around the rocks, they checked out the view from the mountain top.

And what a view there is!  The trees that can't live on the mountain top make their home on the sides. The ground falls away below us and the sea, with it's many islands, almost seems to rise up again.

I don't know how far we could see across the waters, but we could see someone else's weather. It was rain, of course.

We drove back down the mountain, parked the car and started walking on one of the trails. That trail took us along a lake with crystal clear water, and nearby was one of the lovely stone bridges that dot the park. I wanted to see a specific rock called Bubble Rock, so we headed out on another trail. When we started walking Randy had Shorty and I had Julienne. When the trail got steeper, Julienne and I fell behind so Randy took her so he could help her up over the larger rocks and gave me his walking stick. His experience trailing in the Grand Canyon stood him in good stead here, while, as my pictures show, I fell behind farther behind.

And after all that hiking, we never did find that rock! So we headed back down the trail which, as Randy warned me, was easier on the lungs but harder on the legs. I guess I didn't notice much about the path was on my way up (what with trying to breath and all) but on the way down I could see how pretty it was. In one section we were walking through a forest of grey.

Well, most of us were walking. Julienne hitched a ride on Randy's shoulder. She has done this before, it's her favorite way to get exercise.