2021-06-22: Acadia National Park

On Day Two of the family vacation, we spent a foggy day in Acadia National Park, the only national park in the northeastern US, the site of an ancient volcano and home to miles of hiking trails and craggy shorelines. While the family wasn't up for as much hiking as I was, and fogs obscured some of the park's more famous attractions, it was well worth the trip just to visit the shorelines in the thick Maine spring fog.

Fog swallows the ships in Bar Harbor, looking southeast from an overlook on Paradise Hill.

A view of Bar Island, its spring color variations muted by the overcast morning.

A view of a mountain from an overlook along the Park Loop Road. Unfortunately it's been some time since taking these pictures, so it's difficult to narrow down exactly which mountains these are.

Many of the mountains, including the park's famous Cadillac Mountain, were engulfed in clouds and fog.

We stopped at a trailhead near a swamp, where there was a beautiful view of some of the park's characteristic rounded stone hills below the low cloud ceiling.

A panorama taken from some distance into the swamp.

A flat col between two fog-obscured mountains to the south.

Pine trees jut out from the shorter deciduous trees along the foggy ocean. A rocky island, covered in birds, sits out in the distance.

Narrow-angle shots capture less light, giving this field of fog and distant shoreline a very dark feel.

A Virginia rose (Rosa virginiana) along the road. The trails and roads in Acadia are filled with wild roses.

The one-way Park Loop Road winds along impressive cliffs, with views of the sea (in good weather) off the other side.

The road was lined with a number of stopping points which led to short trails and views along the park's hallmark granite cliffs.

A thin line of grey rock cuts through a pillar of granite along the foamy sea.

A wider shot from my phone shows the evergreen forests and tall cliffs as they extend out into the fog.

An older couple provides a sense of scale to the rocky outcrops.

More gentle slopes to the south characterize the seaside between Sand Beach and the Thunder Hole.

More distant cliffs are dulled by the blue-grey fog.

A single herring gull (Larus smithsonianus) guards its territory at the edge of a granite outcrop along the ocean.

When other tourists approached too close, the gull flew away over visitors on a nearby outcrop.

The uneasy waves of the north Atlantic quickly dissipate into the fog.

A juvenile pine on a pine tree along the cliffs, possibly from pitch pine (Pinus rigida) or Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris).

The ragged rocks along the seaside at Otter Point, at the southern tip of the park, are a popular site for walking.

I've long been told that the bluish color of the sea is due to the reflection of the blue skies. The blue-green waves that continually broke under the fog disproved this for me.

Each wave doused the most distant rocks in water, which would then flow down them like tiny waterfalls.

The mosses and sea-plants that grow along these rocks must be very hardy to survive and thrive midst the water's constant bombardment.

In what's probably the trip's creepiest shot, these tall, scraggly evergreens were just barely visible in silhouette through the thick Maine fog.

The fog along Acadia was inconsistent at best; many areas would be almost totally clear, then nearby would be fog so dense it was impossible to see more than a few feet.

Acadia's main attractions are its mountains, but with the fog covering everything, we found the sea and its geology to be the most compelling thing available.

This blocky rock at Otter Point was particularly noticeable. Man-sized waves would continually crash against it, often reaching its top with their tumultuous foam.

The characteristic orange-pink granite of Acadia appeared in a muted grey color due to the fog.

A rare clear picture without visible fog, taken from only a few feet away from a rock as close to the ocean as I could get while remaining safe.

A layer of white quartz intersecting the granite grows with waterfalls of bright green moss. I found the park's geology to be fascinating.

A shot from my phone, looking out across a cove on Otter Point.

That blocky rock again, greyed out by fog in the distance as a small wave collides with its seaward side.

Early in our visit, a park ranger told us to keep an eye out for a thin line of white rock at Otter Point, the ash from an ancient volcanic eruption that interrupted the normal granite. To our disbelief, we were actually able to find it.

One last shot of the foamy blue-green sea before heading inland for the day.

The Acadia Botanical Gardens, unlike many such gardens, contains only plants that naturally grow in the park's area. This hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) was one of several wildflowers in bloom.

I was surprised that I was actually able to get this shot of a bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) sitting calmly upon the leaf of a blooming water lily (probably Nuphar variegatum).

Another blooming flower was the blue flag (Iris versicolor), a toxic plant said to bring luck in financial endeavors.

Unfortunately, many of Acadia's more famous attractions, including Cadillac Mountain or the view from Jordan Pond, were obscured in fog. However, I don't think the fog really detracted much from our trip; on the contrary, it forced us to spend more time at less popular areas and gave the whole trip a more authentic New England feel.