Camping in Acadia National Park

The last weekend in June, we finally got to visit Acadia National Park on Mt. Desert Island. We camped at the Bass Harbor Campgrounds (owned by "Doc" who has a son named Kurt!). The owners of the campground were the friendliest people, they told us where the best places were to go and how to cook our own lobsters over a fire! During the high season (july and august) they have a big lobster bake every Wednesday, but we showed up right before the big rush. We got a cute site along a big open field. We could hear the ocean and buoys in the distance. After we set up, we went for a walk to see the Bass Harbor lighthouse (picture at right).

We talked with a couple of the other people stopping to look at the lighthouse, and even saw some porpoises while looking out toward the ocean! Then we high tailed it back to the camp site to get a good fire going before it got dark for our hot dog and smore dinner. We played cards, charades and read around the fire. While laying in the tent we listened to the strong winds coming off the coast and swaying the huge pine trees around our site.

The next day, we drove around the island, it was beautiful! We saw the seawall, where a very small natural rock wall seperates the ocean from a freshwater lake on the island. We explored a path off the road and climbed down the rock cliff to a sea cave that was exposed because it was low tide. We stopped to eat some sandwhiches at Sand Beach. There are very few natural sand beaches along Maine's rocky coast, but sand beach is one of them and it's beautiful. The water was the coldest ocean water I have ever felt, it took your breath away when you just put your foot in!

Then we went for a hike up the Beehive. The hike is described as "a nearly vertical climb using iron rungs with spectacular close-up views of Sand Beach and Great Head." The views were amazing (despite being somewhat overcast) and the hike was such a fun time.

After the exhilerating hike, we stoped at Preston's Seafood to buy live lobsters for dinner! We figured we would take Doc's advice and try our hand at cooking lobsters on the campfire. The campground lent us a huge pot to boil the water in and Kurt McGuyver found two pieces of rebar to prop the pot up above the coals. The woman in the campground office told us to throw the lobsters in when we had a rolling boil and in only 13 minutes we would have perfectly done lobsters, she was right! Not only was it an amazing meal, but it also gave Kurt a new experience: his first time holding a live lobster. With some sweet potatoes and green beans, we had a perfect meal. And I can't forget smores for dessert.

A very lucky seagull smelled our dinner and waited patiently 2 feet from our campsite until the perfect moment (kurt and I both went to the bathhouse to rinse off all the lobster juice) to steal some leftovers. We found him on top of our picnic table...that sneaky bastard. After dinner, we practiced camera tricks with hot coals and long exposures and listed to the All Request Oldies station until a couple of rain drops chased us into the tent.